Jonathan Torgovnik: Intended Consequences : Rwandan Children Born of Rape

An estimated twenty thousand children were born of rapes that occurred during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Fifteen years later, the mothers of these children still face enormous challenges, among them, being stigmatized within their communities for bearing a child fathered by a Hutu militiaman.

Over the past three years, photographer Jonathan Torgovnik has made repeated visits to Rwanda to document the experiences of these women, allowing them to tell their stories.

The portraits and testimonies featured in Intended Consequences offer intensely personal accounts of these survivors’ experiences of the genocide, as well as their conflicted feelings about raising a child who is a reminder of horrors endured.

An introduction by Marie Consolée Mukagendo, a Rwandan UNICEF staff member who has studied this aspect of the genocide, provides an in-depth analysis of this complex subject.

In recent atrocities in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, rape has been used systematically as a weapon—making this poignant reflection on the legacy of the Rwandan genocide urgently relevant.

Included is a DVD produced by MediaStorm featuring interviews with the women from Intended Consequences.

In spring 2009 Aperture, in collaboration with the Open Society Institute, Amnesty International, and Foundation Rwanda, will launch an international traveling exhibition of this work.