Marie Mukakigeli, aged 45, in her house in one of the poorest districts of Rwanda’s capital city.
Widow and Avega member, Marie lives alone with her six children in this small housing. They were aged from six to twenty. After the genocide, Mary had given shelter to her sister’s children, died in 1994. Despite her desire to keep them, unable to face the material needs, she has had to entrust her mother with the two of them, pain within her chest. Infected by HIV during the massacres of 1994, she is often too weak to work. The day of our visit, Marie was out during the lunch break: ashamed, she had distanced herself from the house so as not to see her children coming home from school, as she had nothing to give to them for lunch.
Here she is beside her six year old daughter, Sarah, who is the only child not to attend school. In order to gain a little more money, Mary has to prostitute herself. Sarah is born from one of these relationships. She is not infected by the virus.
June 2005 – Kigali - Rwanda.
© Pierre-Yves GINET