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Rwanda Project Photo Exhibition At Bklyn Children’s Museum
What is so unique about the project is that the images were captured by children orphaned by the Rwandan gen-ocide and is the culmination of four years of photographic workshops for the children living at the Imbabazi Or-phanage in Gisenyi, Rwanda. The award- winning exhibition has been shown throughout the United States and has traveled throughout Europe and was exhibited at the U.S. Embassy in Kiga-li, Rwanda and at the United Nations in remembrance of the ten-year an-niversary of the genocide last April.
Through the Eyes of Children was conceived by photographer David Ji-ranek and began as a photographic workshop in 2000 that was inspired by and centered on the importance of the children’s perspective and experience. Given disposable cameras, the children, ranging in ages from eight to eighteen, began photographing themselves and their community. The resulting photographs are nothing short of extraordinary (see www.RwandaProject.org to view the photographs). A photograph by 8-year-old Jacqueline entitled “Gadi” won “First Prize - Portraiture” in the 2001 Camera Arts Magazine Photo Contest (in the adult category). Today, the children’s work is traveling across the U.S. and around the world. It is exhibition that provides a unique look at Rwanda and at the lives of the children affected by the genocide, almost 11 years later. The goal of this project is share with the world the perspective of the children, to provide an opportunity to reflect on the tragedy of the genocide by observing life today through the eyes of Rwanda’s children. Additionally, the project aims to demon-strate to the children of the Imbabazi Orphanage that they have something to share with the world that is meaningful. Through the sale of their photographs, the children receive that message, as well as the means to continue their photography and their education. Many of the children that participated in the Through the Eyes of Children photography project are both Hutu and Tutsi and were injured and orphaned by the 1994 genocide. Today, images continue to play a key part in our memory of the injustices that occurred. Not only has photography served as a major strategy for documenting the atrocity, but it has also been used as a way to reunite children with their families. However, the power of the camera has rarely been in the hands of those affected the most. While many now know about the genocide, most do not fully understand its magnitude. In a mere 100 days while the world (today’s modern-day world) stood by, more than 800,000 people were killed. The slaughter of civilians by civilians occurred at a rate of 3-to-4 times that of the Holocaust and resulted in millions of refugees and orphaned children.
The Museum will be open February 21-25 from 11 am-6 pm for Midwinter Recess. The Brooklyn Children’s Mu-seum is located at 145 Brooklyn Ave-nue. For directions or more information, call 718-735-4400 or visit www. brooklynkids.org. For more information on Through the Eyes of Children: The Rwanda Project, visit www.Rwanda-Project.org.
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