Basketry   |   Knitting   |   A Knitter's Story

In 1994 Esperance Nyirarusimbi was 15 years old and living in a rural Rwandan province. She had lost her mother five years earlier to sickness and was being raised by her father, a member of the minority Tutsi tribe. When the genocide began her father was killed by a Hutu man who had been working as their house helper. Soon after, Esperance lost two sisters in a mass killing that took many lives in her village.

Esperance says she does not know how she survived. Living for weeks in the forest, she came out only at night to receive food from families whom she trusted would not reveal her hiding places. When the horror finally ended she learned that all that remained of her family, including aunts, uncles and cousins, was one brother, with whom she lives today on her late father's land.

Prior to her work with Rwanda Knits the only income Esperance earned came from subsistence farming. Today she not only makes products for export, but has become a teacher who travels throughout Rwanda to bring skills-and hope-to other women, many of whom are also survivors.