Quote #11: Intended Consequences

Intended Consequences

"When you despair, you die sooner. When you look for courage, you go on and that's the choice I made." — Young Rwandan woman, Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, thousands of Tutsi women were raped, beaten and tortured by Hutu militiamen. Twenty-thousand children, who were born of the rapes, are now teenagers.

In Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape, photographer Jonathan Torgovni's portraits accompany the stories of 30 woman who currently struggle with isolation and trauma as a result of the attacks they suffered. Many of the women fear their children will be rejected by society, so they have not told them the truth.

"All efforts should be done to ensure that rape and acts of sexual violence never happen to anyone because the individual is not the only victim. The children who come after are also affected by the sexual violence," says Odette*, who lost all her family during the genocide.

View the exhibit until May 7, 2009 at Aperture Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor (between 10th and 11th Avenues), New York, New York. A related panel discussion will take place April 29 at 6:30PM.

*Odette's name has been changed to protect her identity.