SHOREWOOD, IL---13 years after the genocide that destroyed the lives of approximately 900,000 men, women, and children, Christina Dyer journeyed to Rwanda on a personal mission to photograph the sick and dying children of Rwanda. Dyer’s intention was to give the parents the gift of a keepsake portrait. What Dyer found in Rwanda was an overwhelming poverty of material goods, but not a poverty of spirit.
With the ever-changing political climate in Rwanda, the people, who now struggle with unacknowledged and explored grief, and the unspoken horrors of a missing generation, must face their biggest challenge of moving on and toward a unified country without regard to ethnic hatreds and conflicts. They do this individually each and every day no matter what new political difficulty they look to face. Dyer states,
Some of the people who survived the killing, but who lost many, if not all family members, told me that they must forgive the killers if they are to find peace. Many stated this however with a distant almost haunted look in their eyes looking out—beyond me, almost to the skies as if seeking the reassurance to go on, out there…somewhere else.
The hour-long presentation will include a short video clip and a photographic montage of the many children and family portraits given to some of the Rwandan people. A presentation of the series of the events that led Dyer to Africa will also be discussed.
Open discussion and a question and answer session will be welcomed.
Christina Dyer holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California State University at Fullerton. She worked with various corporations and non-profits before beginning her own photography business in 1998. She has traveled the world extensively photographing various cultures from London to Katmandu.
The Presentation will be on Tuesday, February 20th at 7pm at the Shorewood Public Library, 650 Deerwood Drive.
You may register for the event at www.shorewood.lib.il.us under EVENTS.
For more information, contact Renee Daggers at (815) 725-1746.