Boston Globe Examines Rwandan Rape Survivors Photo Series
The Boston Globe on Thursday examined a photographic portrait series by Jonathan Torgovnik called "Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape," which depicts some of the estimated 20,000 Tutsi rape survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who had children following the rapes. Torgovnik said he was inspired to take the photographs after a 2006 trip to Rwanda, during which he met a woman living with HIV. The woman said she had contracted the virus after begin raped by members of the Hutu militia during the genocide, and then gave birth to a son as a result of one of the rapes. "They are suffering multiple traumas," Torgovnik said, adding, "They have to live with the memories of the genocide and their families being murdered in front of them, of being raped multiple times and humiliated, of having a child from this experience and most of them also of contracting HIV from this experience. And then they are rejected by their families and their communities because of the stigma associated with rape, HIV and of having a 'child of the militia.'" Torgovnik and filmmaker Jules Shell have launched a foundation, called Foundation Rwanda, to pay for medical care, school tuition and other services, and raise awareness worldwide about the situation (Taylor, Boston Globe, 2/19).
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