Rwandan Orphanage Closures
I have really mixed feelings about this article posted recently in The Washington Times. It concerns the efforts to close orphanages in Rwanda. While the goal to get children into families seems lofty, the author points to the real-life problems that orphans encounter in Rwanda. One of the subjects she points out and that I found to be true when interviewing orphans for my book is the touchy subject of land. Those who lost parents in the genocide often also lost the most valuable commodity in Rwanda today, land. When orphans come back to the areas where their family is from, many in the community feel threatened that they may be returning for the rightful claim to their land. One orphan interviewed in the Times piece shows just such scars.