SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OTUNNU TO OPEN EXHIBIT ON RWANDA, WEDNESDAY, 7 APRIL

Note to Correspondents

Special Representative Otunnu to open exhibit on Rwanda, Wednesday, 7 April

Olara Otunnu, Special Representative for the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, will open a photographic exhibition on Rwanda at 6 p.m., Wednesday, 7 April, in the United Nations General Assembly Visitors’ Lobby.

The Exhibition, entitled “Through the Eyes of Children”, will continue through 15 April.  It began as a photographic workshop in 2000 conceived by photographer, David Jiranek, and inspired by the founder of the Imbabazi Orphanage, Rosamond Carr, an American woman living in Rwanda for over 50 years.

Using disposable cameras, the children originally took pictures for themselves, exploring their community of Gisenyi and their own vision as the country struggled to rebuild.  The photographs, developed locally, were displayed on the orphanage walls and put into photo albums by the children.  A year later, the children were invited by the United States Embassy to exhibit and sell their work in the capital, Kigali, with all proceeds going towards their education.

A photograph by 8-year-old Jacqueline won “First Prize-Portraiture” in the 2001 Camera Arts Magazine Photo Contest and Honourable Mention in an international competition for photographers from around the world.  At present, the children’s work is travelling around the globe in an exhibition that provides a unique look at Rwanda and at the lives of the children affected by the genocide a decade later.  It encourages the viewer to experience the life of a country that is in the process of rebuilding, of looking towards a hopeful future -- through the eyes of children.

A photo essay by Adam Nadel will also be on display in the Visitors’ Lobby chronicling the aftermath of the genocide through images and interviews with several adult survivors.

To learn more about “Through the Eyes of Children”, and to meet some of the children from the Imbabazi Orphanage, visit the Web site: www.rwandaproject.org.

The Rwanda photo exhibitions were prepared by Pixel Press, Adam Nadel and the United Nations Department of Public Information in consultation with the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations.

For more information on United Nations exhibits, visit the Web site: www.un.org/events/UNART.

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