Laurence Mukangaramba, aged 61, in company of her daughter Hilary Uwanyrimjira, aged 25, single. Widow since the genocide, Laurence has nine children. Two of them died before 1994, two others during the massacres. She has adopted two orphans. The youngest is today eleven years old. During the attack of the Church of Mugina, in the perimeter of which close to 30 000 people were killed, she managed to escape and reach the bushes, where she hid until the arrival of the FPR. Five of her children managed to do the same, but all were dispersed, without any news from one another during several weeks.
Repeatedly hunted by neighbours, Hilary has roamed from bush to bush with her younger sister upon her back, without food, for several weeks. The two orphans sheltered by her mother are cousins of her distant family: ”We share what we have. Often, as for today, beans, our only food for several weeks now. Otherwise, sorgho pastry, it tastes bad but nourrishes.”.
June 2005 – Gitarama - Rwanda.
© Pierre-Yves GINET