How ‘Camera Kids’ are telling Rwanda’s post-genocide stories through the lens

“Let me put a camera in their hands and see what they can do with it.” This was the late David Jiranek’s instinctive response when he first visited Rwanda in 2000 to explore the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. A photographer driven by curiosity and compassion, Jiranek came to see Rwanda beyond the news headlines and found himself empowering orphaned children through the lens of a camera. His journey led him to Imbabazi Orphanage, where 19 selected children took part in what would become a transformative photography project. He named them the Camera Kids, a title that would distinguish them not only as students but as storytellers. This initiative of photography workshops, ‘Through the Eyes of Children (TTEC)’, would outlive him, continuing even after his passing in 2003. ALSO READ: Through the Eyes of Children photo exhibition opens in Kigali Now, 25 years later, the Camera Kids have continued to honor that legacy. On April 17, three of the original participants, Jean Bizimana, Gadi Habumugisha, and Mussa Uwitonze who continued to run the workshops throughout the years and expanding it to other countries, opened the 2025 exhibition at the Kigali Marriott Hotel under the theme “Through the Eyes of Children: A 25 Year Retrospective.” The exhibition, running from April 16-17, showcases images captured since the project’s inception, as well as photographs from new generations they have mentored. “We wanted to give back to the community, to share the knowledge we gained when we were vulnerable kids ourselves, and inspire others to tell their stories through photography,” Habumugisha told The New Times. Through partnerships with organizations like Inyenyeri Itazima and others, TTEC has since conducted photography workshops with children with disabilities, and children from both genocide survivors and perpetrator families. These workshops provide basic photography training before sending participants out to document the world around them, capturing what matters most to them. Exhibited photos serve as both art and archive. They preserve memories of Rwanda’s transformation, from post-genocide recovery to modern-day resilience. “It’s been 31 years since the genocide, and Rwanda has changed tremendously, not just economically, but in how people relate to one another,” said Habumugisha. “Now the Camera Kids have families of their own. We're training a new generation, who will hopefully pass this legacy on.” Some of the original Camera Kids, like Epiphanie Umuhoza, recall how the project changed their lives. Her photograph of a dancer in traditional attire, taken at age 14, is one of the images on display. “When I first held a camera, I thought it was just for fun,” she said. “I never imagined it would lead to sponsorships that covered my school and university tuition.” For Albert Uwituze, another original Camera Kid, photography provided a way to keep joyful memories. His exhibited image of a man jumping for joy reminds him of his childhood in rural Rwanda. “A photograph is valuable because it helps us remember where we came from and where we’re going,” Uwituze reflected. Visual storytelling also helps preserve Rwanda’s cultural heritage, said Mignone Betty Mukabera. Her photo of an old house taken in Musanze in 2005, for example, now represents how far Rwanda’s built environment has come. “The image tells a story. You won’t see those houses today, it’s a reminder of the transformation,” she said. The initiative has had emotional and even life-changing effects. Boniface Mudenge, founder of Inyenyeri Itazima and a Unity Champion (Umurinzi w’Igihango), shared a story of two workshop participants, one a child of a genocide survivor, the other a child of a perpetrator. Their unexpected friendship, born through photography, ultimately helped unite their families. “Every time they had to pick the people to work with, the genocide survivor’s daughter always picked the child whose parents killed her mother’s family. And later they became good friends. At the end of the workshop, the genocide survivor’s kid asked her mom to accompany her to visit her friend. This later resulted in both families also becoming friends,” Mudenge noted. “It gave them relief and openness. The perpetrator gave himself in, and he finished his sentence and is now in the community. But because the kids took the first step, even the perpetrator is now free to visit the survivor’s family. That is just one, but it helped the kids, and it gives us a chance to talk to them about the history of the country,” he added. After Kigali, the exhibition will be moved to Museum Ingabo from April 18 through May 25. Among prominent places where photographs from the projects have been showcased are the United Nations in New York, the Hart Senate Building in Washington, DC, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Holocaust Museums, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and throughout Canada and Europe with major museums and universities.

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How ‘Camera Kids’ are telling Rwanda’s post-genocide stories through the lens