Rwandan Children Born of Rape

Photographs, introduction and interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik from his book 'Intended Consequences'

I first traveled to Rwanda in February of 2006 on assignment for NEWSWEEK magazine with then health editor, Geoffrey Cowley, to work on a story about HIV/AIDS, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the disease’s identification.

While there, we met Odette, a woman who had been brutally raped during the Rwandan genocide and contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of those encounters. It was the most powerful and sad interview I have ever experienced. Odette described how her entire family had been killed and recounted the abuse she experienced, in detail. She also told us that she had become pregnant as a result of the multiple rapes she endured in the genocide and bore a baby boy.

Her horrific story led me to return to Rwanda to embark on a personal mission to document the stories of women like Odette and to share them with the international community.