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JOURNAL beyond borders

RWANDA

 

Rwanda

Kigali, Rwanda
2006

Betsy Kain, Coordinator
Rita Rivest, Coordinator
Pat McClure, Contact

 

This group of boxes is part of 55 boxes that were taken to Kigali, Rwanda by Betsy Kain in collaboration with Solace Ministries in 2006. They were given to widows of the genocide in an effort to help them work through their losses and grief. The transformed boxes and statements reflect the atrocities and immense personal hardship Tutsi women went through, and their attempt to cope with memories of their loved ones being killed in front of their eyes.

 

Pat McClure, Betsy Kain, and Rita Rivest
Pat McClure, Betsy Kain, and Rita Rivest

 

Women of Rwanda expressing their creativity and emotions through their boxes as part of a healing exercise

 

beatrice-nicyascra-beatrices-box-a-coffin-rwanda-silo
Beatrice Nicyascra – Beatrice’s Box, A Coffin – Rwanda, 2006

Beatrice Nicyascra – Beatrice’s Box, A Coffin – Rwanda

The figures on the top represent her husband and four children who were all murdered during the genocide. She had to (forced) watch, as her husband was hacked into four or five pieces. Overwhelmed with tears, she could not go any further.

 

Annie Mbabazi – Untitled – Rwanda, 2006

Annie Mbabazi – Untitled – Rwanda
Green, yellow and blue are the colors of our flag. Rwanda, a nation recovering from the blood shed of man. The red doom is the symbol of Genocide and the white cross with the bleeding heart of Jesus, who sacrificed that Rwanda be made clean, symbolized by the white cross.
 
Yellow is sunshine, hope for Rwanda. Green is life and growth and blue is reconciliation, possible only though the blood of Jesus.

 

 

SEE RWANDA BOXES