Abari means daughter.
Abari b/i Nyamata are literally the daughters of Nyamata.
These are extraordinary young women. Once you visit Nyamata, you will never forget what you see and you will forever be changed by the strength of the people who are making lives for themselves there.
Nyamata is a small town in the Bugesera District of Rwanda. The town has been both impoverished for years and the site of mass murder during the 1994 100-day genocide. The Nyamate Parish Catholic Church was the site of horrific acts during those 100 days. You can descend into an underground room that holds some of the remains of the more than 45,000 people who were killed there. It is a place I will never forget.
The population of Nyamata that in 1993 was 120,000. In 2009 endurance the population had dropped to only 12,000. Many of the deaths, beyond the genocide, were due to poor living conditions.
The survivors there are a testament to the strength and of a people whose population was decimated and who are beginning to thrive again.
IDEA4Africa held a workshop there with the Daughters of Nyamata, Abari b/i Nyamata.
Images of these beautiful women have replaced my memories of the place.
