Lily Yeh

A Silent Auction during the reception at the FWWIC raised $2500 to continue the work by Engineers without Borders in Rugerero.

Children painting in Rugerero

Can one person's vision make a difference in a distant country torn apart by war and genocide? Philadelphia artist Lily Yeh knows you can. She believes that the power of art can transform impoverished communities.

Some years ago Lily founded the Village of Arts and Humanities to empower local residents and build sustainable community programs in North Philadelphia. She's using the successful model she developed in Philadelphia to create better living conditions around the world through a new organization, Barefoot Artists.  

Lily, Cameron Bass from Jefferson Health and Robert DiFilippo from Engineers without Borders talked about the differences volunteers have made in a survivors' village in Rwanda. They spoke at the opening reception for an exhibition of photographs at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center on September 24. A silent auction held during the reception raised $2500 to continue their work.

In 2004 at an international conference in Barcelona, Lily met Jean Bosco Musana Rukirande, the Regional Coordinator of Red Cross in Gisenyi, Rwanda. He spoke of the situation in Rwanda in the years after the 1994 Genocide. Several months later Jean Bosco took Lily to visit two sites: a mass grave for genocide victims in the Rugerero sector of Rubavu District and a nearby survivors' village.

"The people in the village were suffering." said Lily. "There was no beauty, no healing; no hope. Survivors were moved to this temporary village with no family, no bonds to others, no jobs, no land to farm. There was little water and no sanitation."

Lily returned to Rwanda with materials, grants and volunteers from Barefoot Artists, Thomas Jefferson Medical School and Engineers without Borders Mid Atlantic Professional Chapter to augment the work of the Red Cross and other agencies.

The volunteers from Philadelphia had two complementary goals. First was the construction of the Genocide Memorial Park. Lily felt that if healing is to take place in the hearts of the survivors, a new genocide memorial needed to be built. Hundreds of children and adults participated in building and decorating the memorial.

The second component was the transformation of the survivors' village into a self-sustaining community. The project has grown to include many diverse programs to transform the physical and human environment through health, community, and economic development initiatives. Projects include an educational program for children, initiating a young women's support group, setting up a basic health education program, installing rainwater-harvesting tanks, and starting small business enterprises in sewing, basket weaving, and sunflower oil production. Villagers are raising crops and livestock to feed their families and to sell at local markets. To feed the spirit, Barefoot Artists has also set up a Saturday learning program including visual and performing arts, English, and sports (soccer).

The volunteers from Jefferson and Engineers without Borders helped create a safer and healthier physical environment. The health and living conditions of more than 100 families living in the village have improved immeasurably.

The team from Jefferson first visited Rugerero in 2005 to conduct a community-oriented primary care health needs assessment. Under Professor James Plumb's guidance, a group of medical students from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has been visiting and working in the survivors village for several weeks each summer since 2005. They teach sanitation, nutrition, HIV prevention, prenatal care and family planning.  

In February 2008 a team from Engineers without Borders visited Rugerero to assess sanitation in the village. They found nearly half of the existing wastewater systems in the village were a health danger and needed to be repaired or replaced. During the spring and summer the group raised about $50,000 to undertake this work. By the end of November, 11 new latrines had been constructed and 15 existing systems had been repaired. They hope to complete their work in the coming year.

To read more about the survivors' village and see photos of the Rwanda Healing Projects, please click here. The Rwanda Healing Project Film can also be seen Sundays at the Interpretive Center. Call for dates and times. A DVD of the film maybe purchased at the Interpretive Center for $10 and will benefit Barefoot Artists.

To inquire about volunteer opportunities, get in touch with Lily Yeh, Barefoot Artists, P.O. Box 2348, Philadelphia, PA 19103; Phone: 215-735-7968.

To support Engineers without Borders work, you may donate by check or money order to EWB-USA, and write "Mid-Atlantic Professional Chapter" in the memo field. Send your donation to: Engineers without Borders - USA, 4665 Nautilus Court, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80301.

 

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