 "Photo:")
 "Photo:")
"We heard gun bullets and a lot of noises but we did not know what had happened… militias came…They told us to come out of the house, put us in a line and started killing people with machetes and swords," said Honorine U., a survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. "Many people died and I thought I was dead, too."
In the Robin Campus' Rotunda Gallery hang the stories and pictures of Rwandan survivors in an exhibit called the "Tubeho (to live again) Project."
Non-profit groups such as the Rwandan Survivors Fund asked Rwandan survivors to share their stories as a message to the world to "Stop genocide and sexual attacks on women in other conflict zones: Never Again!"
Photographer Jon Wallen took compelling pictures of the witnesses to coincide with their stories.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was organized by a nationalistic political group called Hutu Power.
The group committed the mass murder of 800,000 Tutsi, one of the largest ethnic groups in Rwanda at the time.
Only 10 percent of the Tutsi population, mainly female, survived. The female survivors were subjected to "horrific sexual attacks and mass daily rapes," the exhibit states.
Some women view the project as a step toward healing.
Nyirantagorama Leonilla lost her parents, husband and children in the conflict but said, "When I give testimonies, I feel relieved. I want other countries to know what happened."
Other women don't see as much value in telling their stories. "For me," Honorine said, "I think speaking out and providing testimonies all over the world does not help at all.
We just remind our hearts of the suffering. The people and the world listen but they change nothing. We just remain the way we were."
"HIV was used as a weapon of the war…against almost all women," Honorine said.
AIDS was purposely spread through the surviving Tutsi population. As a result, 175,000 out of 250,000 rape victims contracted HIV and, tragically, many have passed the disease on to their children.
The display is important to the university "because it brings a global social justice issue to us in a very personal and real way," said Heather Dalmage, director of the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice.
"It helps all of us connect to our humanity, but connecting to the humanity of those who have faced genocide and torture. We are asked to be accountable to ourselves as people concerned with social justice."
The exhibit first came to the university last November and was displayed on the Chicago campus. At that time, Roosevelt University decided to lease the exhibit to organizations in the Chicagoland area to raise funds for the Rwandan survivors.
The exhibit will remain in Schaumburg through Dec. 28.
There will also be a showing, reception and panel discussion near the close of the exhibit.
Those interested in donating to the survivors of Rwanda can pick up informational leaflets with donation forms at the Schaumburg Campus.
Interested donors may also contact Juli Rowen, project and outreach director for the College of Arts and Sciences, at jrowen@roosevelt.edu.
Northwestern University, New Trier High School, and the Women and Children First Museum in Chicago have all leased the project, Rowen said.
Be the first to comment on this article!