"Where Children Once Studied..."

In the 1990s, there were three main tribes that occupied the land of Rwanda: the Tutsis, the Hutu, and the Twa. The majority however, were the Hutu. For some reason, many of the Hutu people under their leader, Habyarimana, were convinced that the people in the Tutsi tribe were at fault for all of the country's misfortunes, and that all of them were participants in a rebel group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) (unitedhumanrights.org).
Because of this skewed misconception, many they made it their goal to exterminate all of the Tutsi. During these painful years, some people fled, but another "...one million people (out of a population of seven million) were killed," and "whether Hutu or Tutsi, whether refugees in camps inside or outside Twanda, survivors are haunted by feelings of fear, guilt, and insecurity" (Salgado). Innocent people were tortured, forced out of their homes, led into traps, and killed in the most unlikely of places. Immaculee Ilibagiza in her book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, talks about her experience living through this nightmare, and describes in great detail how people were treated this way for no reason. She mentions the fact that they were led to churches and schools for protection, only to be slaughtered like nothing (Ilibagiza). 

I have been sitting here at my computer trying to think of a way to put my feelings about this subject and this photograph into words, but I'm having a real struggle. It's not because I don't have anything to say, and it's not because I don't want to say it. It's because no quality or quantity of words can say enough about each life lost depicted in this picture. Or about each family ripped apart because of this horrible tragedy. This picture shows an abandoned school located in a village in Nyarubuye, where in April of 1994, their lives were taken. No on bothered to bury them, because the people who survived left very quickly (Salgado). It is painful to me to look at or think about. These people thought they were safe. These people wanted refuge. These people were terrified, left with little hope for the future because they knew they probably wouldn't have one.

This is "where children once studied" (Salgado). You can still see the writing on the chalkboard from the last class held in that room.

Rwanda is still deeply scarred from this experience, and now I am too.

I can't sit around and watch things like this happen to God's children. It isn't right. It isn't fair. Every time I go to look at the Salgado book, I gain a deeper understanding and a much broader perspective about the refugee situations in the world, but this photo has made me more inspired to help than I ever have been before. Because honestly, we can't afford any more genocides. I want to be there with open, loving arms for the people who have to run to find it.

References:

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. 1994. Photograph. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. P. 206.

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. P. 13. Print.

Ilibagiza, Immaculee. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. United States: Hay House, Inc., 2006. Print.

"Genocide in Rwanda." United Human Rights Council. Web. 8 October 2015. http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm