Women in Post-Genocidal Kigali

In 1994, over the span of 100 days, an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus (one tenth of Rwanda's population) were slaughtered in genocide. Rwanda still has much to rebuild after the conflict. One of the most tragic outcomes, which remains largely ignored, is the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS in women survivors as a result of sexual violence. The Hutu militia, the Interhamwe, carried out a brutal campaign of mass rape in hopes to "dilute" the Tutsi ethnicity. The result is thousands of traumatized women, many of whom were also infected with HIV from their assailants. While most of the perpetrators are now imprisoned in Arusha, Tanzania, they are also receiving AIDS treatment paid for by international development funds. Meanwhile, women in Rwanda, dying of the disease, are unjustly ignored by the international community. With the help of grassroots organizations like WE-ACT, these brave women continue to make a living, provide for their families, preserve their dignity, and survive.

Mothers of Rwanda Dolls

Beginning in July 2005, 25 women participating in the Project to Empower Vulnerable People were trained to create hand-made crafts to sell in the US market. The dolls they make are dressed in high-quality cotton fabrics of traditional prints and stuffed with recycled plastic sacks. These dolls have also led to several interesting partnerships in the US. At one of GGP's partner schools in New York, students volunteered to stuff the dolls, saving the women time and shipping costs.

Sale of these dolls is vital in generating income to purchase nutritious food, but a larger, stable customer base is necessary to generate significant funds. The more funds generated by sales, the more women the project can incorporate into its work.

Region: East Africa
Capital: Kigali
Population: 8.6 million (2005)
Size: Slightly smaller than Maryland
Independence: From Belgium in 1962
Currency: Rwandan franc
Languages: English (official), Kinyarwanda (official), French (official), Kiswahili

Literacy Rate: 70.4% (2007)
Education: 32% of Rwanda's schools were destroyed during the genocide
Primary School Enrollment: 73% (2000-2005)
Life Expectancy: Male, 47 years; Female, 50 years (2007)
Infant Mortality: 85.27 deaths/1000 live births (2007)
HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rate: 3.1% (2005)
Poverty Rate: 60.3% live bellow the national poverty line (1990-2003)
People living on less than $2 a day: 83.7% (1990-2004)
People living on less than $1 a day: 51.7% (1990-2004)
Access to Clean Water: 74% (2004)
Access to Proper Sanitation: 42% of population (2004)
Doctor to Patient Ratio: 5 doctors for every 100,000 people (1990-2000)

All statistics from CIA World Factbook 2007, and UNDP Human Development Report 2006

A small landlocked country in central Africa, Rwanda is also called the land of a thousand hills because of its mountainous terrain and five volcanoes. Ethnically, Rwanda is 84 percent Hutu, 15 percent Tutsi, and one percent Twa. Many wars have been fought between the two larger ethnic groups. After World War I, when Rwanda fell to Belgian rule, authorities required all Rwandans to carry identification cards that stated their ethnicity and bestowed more social and economic power to the Tutsi minority. Education, government positions, and better jobs were all given to the Tutsis. Colonial rulers have often used such segregation as a way to divert resentment inward and away from the ruling colonial power. Thus, instead of rebelling against the Belgians for their mistreatment, Hutu leaders attacked the Tutsis. In the Rwandan Revolution (1959-1961), thousands of Tutsis were killed or forced into exile. By its independence in 1969, Rwanda was under Hutu rule. This separation left a legacy of violent conflict. The tens of thousands of Tutsi refugees in Uganda and Burundi continued to organize in preparation to retake Rwanda.

Paul Kagame, a Rwandan Tutsi refugee formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1986. The RPF trained in Uganda with the hope of retaking power in Rwanda. Feeling threatened by the RPF, Rwanda's Hutu leader, Juvénal Habyarimana, created the Interahamwe, an informal army of trained young Hutu men. In 1990, Kagame's RPF invaded Rwanda, fighting with the Interahamwe for three years until both sides agreed to peace talks known as the Arusha accords. Behind the peace talks, however, the Hutu military continued to plan another attack on the Tutsis.

In April 1994, the Rwandan genocide began. 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in only 100 days, thus going down in history as the most efficient genocide to date. The international community stood by and did nothing. The small UN presence pulled out. Finally, Kagame and the RPF invaded Rwanda again and took control, driving the Hutu army into what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). To this day, conflicts arise between the DRC and Rwanda over the Hutu rebels.

Rwanda is now trying to heal and rebuild. In May 2003, Rwandans voted to approve a new constitution and officially elected Kagame as president. Women are taking on important positions in society. In many families women are now the primary breadwinners, the caretaker of their children as well as of other children who have been orphaned by the genocide. They fill jobs as police officers and construction workers and make up 49 percent of the legislators in the Rwandan Parliament. Several systems have been put in place to seek justice for the crimes committed in 1994. While some of the key perpetrators are being tried in the International Criminal Tribunal in Tanzania, the government is also using a traditional Rwandan court called gacaca to speed up the process of reconciliation and involve communities in the process. Gacaca ("justice on the grass") is a historical grassroots legal system in which all villagers can participate to settle disputes. These courts are now being used try over 120,000 individuals suspected of involvement in the genocide.