I have been in Rwanda for just under a month, and find myself captivated by the spirit and beauty of the people. I feel blessed to be here, and as much as I miss my family, I am sad to be leaving tomorrow.

Rita

Rwanda is a country filled with vision.I’m a photographer and a visual person. For me, vision is the ability to look at scene and use my camera to capture a piece of its essence. I express my vision of the world through the photographs I take.

Rwanda is a country of a different kind of vision; a vision that is the ability to look at something and see what it might become.The people of Rwanda have great vision; an exceptional quality given what they went through.

At Gahaya Links I met people whose vision was to look at a pile of raffia and see the most beautiful baskets imaginable. Their vision was to look at widows – genocide survivors who lost their entire families – and see business women weaving and selling baskets.

Raffia

At Kigali Parents School, the founders looked at infants and toddlers whose pre-genocide literacy rate was under five percent, and had a vision of educated adults studying and working to realize their own hopes and dreams.

KPS

At URWEGO, a company that specializes in micro-finance, they look at the people who have the least, the poorest of the poor, and they see bank clients, business women, and home owners. Shown here is a home being remodeled with a $120.00 loan.

URWEGO home loan

At Christ Gospel Church, Pastor Francis Mutabazi, his wife Dorthy, and their staff see children everyday with very little opportunity, and they have a vision of them going to school, being provided with health care, and realizing their own dreams. These children have visions too, of becoming teachers and nurses and doctors.

Francis and Dorthy

At the Ex-Combatant Rehabilitation Center, Brigadier-General Bagabo and his staff saw children forced into a life soldiering, and had a vision of them getting back their childhood, returning to normal lives, and becoming healthy and productive citizens.

Bagabo

At the Millennium Village, they had a vision of survivors and perpetrators of the genocide building houses together and living side by side in peace and forgiveness. The man shown below killed 6 people in his village during the genocide. After 10 years in jail, he now lives next door to survivors from that same village.

Perpetrator

The list goes on, and on, and on.

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