Recently, illustrator Victor Juhasz of the New York Observer travelled to Rwanda to document the work of Foundation Rwanda, a charity that helps children born of rape during the genocide through bicycles.
Here is what happened:
When Victor Juhasz touched down at Kigali International Airport last month, he knew he was a long way from home. “There was none of the paranoia and hypervigilance that we have become accustomed to,” the Observer illustrator said of Rwanda’s relatively lax security. “Kids were roaming in and out of the taped-off areas, playing around.”
Over the next seven days, traveling along the rolling green countryside that surrounds Rwanda’s capital, Mr. Juhasz would continue to embrace the unfamiliar as he documented a bike-building mission organized by Foundation Rwanda, an aid group founded by photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik and filmmaker Jules Shell whose goals include funding education for children born of rape during the 1994 genocide, which claimed approximately 800,000 lives in just 100 days.
Bicycles play a particularly vital role for these rural children, who live far from schools and simple amenities, like potable water, but aren’t considered “survivors” of the genocide and therefore do not qualify for government-subsidized education. A bicycle can shorten the long commute to school — sometimes up to four hours by foot — help carry food and supplies to one’s family, transport loved ones to the hospital or generate income as a “bike taxi.”
