Rwanda's struggle with AIDS through photographs

Shannon Rose

April, 2009

A school playground in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, a city ravaged by HIV/AIDS photos: Andrew Stawicki

The 1994 Genocide has left Rwanda with countless orphans and a disastrous number of people infected with AIDS. Photo Sensitive in partnership with The Rwanda Initiative are exhibiting a series of photographs across Canada entitled Living With, to show the hope and despair of Rwandans.

“It’s heart wrenching in places but inspirational as well,” says James Burns, coordinator of Photo Sensitive. Six photographers and one Rwanda Initiative intern spent 10 days in Rwanda in December 2007 photographing the best and the worst of life in Rwanda 15 years after the genocide.

The goal of Photo Sensitive is to use the power of photography to spread the word about social issues that otherwise would never make the press, Burns says.

A church in Kigali where the children sit apart from the adults

The Rwanda Initiative is a partnership between the School of Journalism and Communication at the National University of Rwanda and its counterpart at Carleton University in Ottawa.

“The main goal is to build the capacity of the media in Rwanda,” Allan Thompson, a journalism teacher at Carleton University says. “We do that mainly by teaching journalism at the University. We also do internships for Canadian and Rwandan journalists who go back and forth between countries.”

The Rwanda Initiative set up the project initially. Thompson explains that they got the funding from SIDA and researched many of the projects that the photographers would go out on.

“The photographers spent time with local students and acted as mentors,” Burns says. The Photo Sensitive photographers were paired with Rwandan photojournalists and journalism students, which resulted in the locals producing their own body of work.

Burns explained that the country is still suffering the effects of the genocide. Rape was a popular weapon that was used and as a result, there are now 200,000 people people infected with AIDS in a country with a population of less than nine million, according to the UN.

“There’s a photo of a grandmother, in her 60s or 70s who is looking after all of her grandkids because of AIDS and genocide,” Burns says. Her children died from HIV and the massacres that took place in the early 90’s. As a result, she is left as the sole caregiver for five children.

“Kevin Van Passen documented circumcision,” Thompson says. There has been a huge move for adults to get circumsized because it reduces the chances of contracting HIV. “It’s difficult to find someone who will let you photograph that procedure,” Thompson says.

Roza Mukabagema - she got infected after caring for her infected children. Two of her daughters died of the disease, two more are very sick and two of her five grandchildren have tested positive

“There’s some really sad stories, but it’s not all negative. There are photos of youth just going about being kids despite the fact that they’ve contracted AIDS and HIV.

“One of our photographers Tony Hauser was certainly struck by the people here,” Burns says. “He was so impressed by the people that he met and could not believe the poverty that they were living in.” Many of the Rwandans had never had their photographs taken before and asked Hauser for copies. “Tony doesn’t use digital cameras. He still uses old style film.”

Hauser’s solution to the problem of distributing photographs was to return to a small village in Rwanda, Yagature in June 2008 and hold a mini exhibition. After the exhibition, he gave the locals the photographs.

“The photographers were impressed by their strength in the face of adversity,” Burns says. “Even though it could be hard, the Rwandans let them into their lives.”

Info: photosensitive.com