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An exhausted child is
comforted by a Sister of Mother Teresa at St. Joseph's Center in Kibungo, Rwanda. The
child became separated from his parents during their recent journey home from Tanzania. |
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A reluctant infant sulks while
receiving a bath at the Rwamagana orphanage in Rwanda. The boy, who is suffering from
malnutrition, was separated from his family during the forced repatriation from Tanzania. |
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A teenage Hutu girl receives a haircut
from a friend at the Rwamagana orphange in Rwanda. Both girls were recently orphaned. |
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A young boy, orphaned during the exodus
from Zaire two months ago, sits in the bedroom he shares with many other orphans at the
Rwamagana orphanage. |
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A girl washes out cups at the Birenge
transit camp in Kibungo, Rwanda. The camp was built by the International Rescue Committee
in anticipation of the Hutu refugees return home from Tanzania.The camp is for
unaccompanied minors, disabled, elderly and single parent families. As an unaccompanied
minor, if she is not reunited with her family or matched with a foster parent, she will be
sent to an orphanage. |
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Lunch at Rwamagana orphanage in
Rwamagana, Rwanda, is vegetables and beef over rice. |
Kibungo, Rwanda
Today we stumbled across 115 newly arrived, unaccompanied minors dropped at St. Joseph
Center in Kibungo, a school-orphanage run by Sisters of Mother Teresa (from India and
France). They normally care for children who were products of rapes during the war as well
as those with single parents unable to care for their children. You could tell the sisters
run a tight ship normally, but with 115 more children, mostly between the ages of 3 and 5,
they were overwhelmed. People from the IRC hustled to round up blankets, soap and biscuits
for the kids. The stench of the children was overwhelming, but they could not wash their
clothes until they have been photographed. It helps parents identify their children by
seeing them in the same clothing at the time they were lost.
It was obvious many of the kids had respiratory infections after walking all day in the
hot sun and camping in the very cool evenings. Still, many were playing happily together
and seemed to find something to smile about. They would run up and clamp their skinny arms
around your legs. So starved for affection.
 
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