World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 20)

RECONCILES Story and photos by Geoff Oliver Bugbee | WORLD ARK CONTRIBUTOR RWANDA Rwanda is still recovering from the 1994 genocide in which about 10 percent of the population died. In the villages where Heifer is working, Rwandans are ﬁnding the strength, will and resources to survive. AGNES UWANYILIGIRA: GENOCIDE SURVIVOR D esperately clinging to the side of a rickety skiff overloaded with terrified women and children, Agnes Uwanyiligira—pregnant and distraught—fled her embattled village where her husband was killed earlier that day. Exhausted and frail from hunger, many of the Tutsi refugees drowned in the murky waters of Lake Muhazi. For several weeks in April 1994, Uwanyiligira’s village of Kabare resisted an incessant force of machete-wielding mercenaries called the Interahamwe, a ragtag civilian Hutu paramilitary organization that was sweeping the countryside, hunting down Tutsis by the droves. Frantic and defenseless, the village women collected stones for the men to throw at the oncoming attackers. At first, it proved an effective means of survival until the Rwandan Hutu-led government militia, armed with guns, reinforced the Interahamwe. Word had spread that a rebel force known as the RPF (Rwandese Patriotic Front) had captured the eastern side of Lake Muhazi and that Tutsi villagers could find protection there. In a do-or-die moment, Uwanyiligira and 80 others set out for the eastern shore. She remembers collapsing. At daylight, she and the other survivors walked for hours into RPF-occupied territory. Hungry villagers were converging from all directions, taking refuge in abandoned schools and churches. Thirteen years later, Uwanyiligira somberly recalls the horrific details of the April day that forever changed her life. Her fingers peel at little bits of bark from the wooden rails of her cow shed, as a small calf occasionally pokes a curious nose through the fence and nips at the fabric of her batiked blue dress. Uwanyiligira gently swats the calf away, but the animal’s gesture lightens the mood, keeping her focused on the present. In the wake of the genocide that claimed all 25 members of her family, except for her one brother who now lives next door to her, Uwanyiligira is moving forward with her life. When she was growing up, her family owned Friesian cattle, but in the chaos and turmoil of the genocide, the cows were stolen or killed in the crossfi re. Because of her poverty, raising cows seemed out of reach. But with the help of Heifer International, Uwanyiligira now owns a healthy Friesian that she has lovingly named www.heifer.org 20 November/December 2007 | WORLD ARK http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

World Ark - November/December 2007 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Pursuing Happiness (PRODUCT) RED: Consumer Power Fights AIDS in Africa Rwanda Reconciles End Hunger Now Protecting the Poor from Climate Change Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Heifer Calendar Reflection

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

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