Artist： Lily Yeh（America）
Date : 2005，on-going
Location： Rugerero Sector of Rubavu District in West Rwanda, close to the city
Gisenyi
Media/Type： installation
Commissioner： Red Cross Rwanda
Researcher： Vera Tollmann
The socially engaged Rwanda Healing Project deals in two ways with the grief of the 1994 genocide. It created a place for memory, but also offers education, development,
and a perspective for life in the future. Yeh and her team of volunteers worked with genocide survivors and their families. During the project process, participants learned the
Barefoot Artists' methodology on community building and economic development through art with the aim of creating a sustainable infrastructure. Yeh initiated pen friendships between the local schools and schools in the U.S. to educate children in the U.S. about the 1994 genocide and today’s situation in Rwanda.
The Barefoot Artists initiatively gathered material support from other institutions and companies. For example, MIT brought renewable solar-powered flashlights and hand-crank dynamo electric LED lanterns to the village. Those are prototypes which ideally would go to other villages in Rwanda, too.
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