The Aperture Foundation Gallery in NY is hosting photographer Jonathan Torgovnik‘s show, Intended Consequences, which includes interviews and photographs of Rwandan children born of rape during the genocide and personal interviews with the mothers. Torgonvnik, contract photographer for Newsweek magazine, and prof at the International Center of Photography School in New York, is also co-founder of the non-profit Foundation Rwanda.
Foundation Rwanda exists explicitly to serve women and children who have been stigmatized as a result of rape during the genocide. It is estimated that 20,000 children were born as a result of rape.

A satellite of the show will also be used at the UN on April 7th of this year to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. Testimonials and stories of those who suffered during the genocide will be read by UN officials and will include some of the interviews conducted by Torgovnik. A corresponding book will also be published in April.
Torgovnik was moved by an interview he heard in Rwanda with a woman who was a victim of rape during the genocide while he was working on another story for Newsweek. Through that story he was able to make parallels to his own family’s suffering during the Holocaust and returned to complete this project. A selection of the testimonies are available to be read on the Foundation Rwanda webpage.