Lopi LaRoe
Gihembe Refugee Camp, Rwanda
Oil on Walnut
3 ¾” X 5 ½ “ X 4”
October 2006
side view:
Over 17,000 Congolese refugees have lived in the Ghembe Refugee Camp in Rwanda since 1997. With over 4,000 students in the camp, managed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, there is not enough room to accommodate all the education needs. Many of the kids that live in the refugee camp never set foot in a real classroom. They are growing up in a limbo state.
The original photograph was taken by Kresta King Cutcher who resides in the UK and is active in Rwandan Human rights organizations. Her deeply moving and personal photographs can be viewed on her Flickr photo blog under the name camera_rwanda.