Documentary to raise funds for agency combating illiteracy

Laura Heaton '05 stands with a Rwandan girl outside a high school near Kigali.

In 1994, the world stood by as 800,000 Rwandans were murdered. Rwanda rarely makes headlines anymore. But the wounds are still fresh for those who were there, and Laura Heaton ’05 wants to be a part of the healing.

Heaton’s trip to Rwanda follows her pattern of looking for a way to help when she sees human suffering. As a student at CC, she interned with a French organization working for children’s rights in Madagascar. She also co-founded a chapter of the national coalition STAND, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur.

Her trip to Rwanda in May helped her learn about the conditions there while she contributed to the making of a short documentary. Now she plans to return to Rwanda to put her skills as a reporter to work as she helps launch a youth newspaper designed to promote understanding.

“Outside of Rwanda we often fail to realize that for people who lost parents, children, brothers and sisters during the genocide, and who continue to live in the same village with those who were killed, 12 years is a very short time,” said Heaton, who learned about this tragedy in her studies as an international relations major.

Heaton traveled to Rwanda for a four-week summer program organized by Global Youth Connect, a human rights group focused on youth education and action around the world, in partnership with Never Again-Rwanda. The delegation of Americans worked with Rwandans on projects to raise awareness of the problems the small African country continues to face.

“I was eager to have a glimpse of the reconciliation process in Rwanda, to see firsthand how Rwanda is coping with its past,” said Heaton.

Working in a team of three Americans and one Rwandan, Heaton collected material for a short documentary about illiteracy. Interviewing people for the documentary exposed the difficulty an outsider has learning about the country’s violent past. Heaton was sensitive in her conversations with Rwandans, remembering that 80 percent of the population lost at least one family member in the violence of 1994.

Rwandans, especially in rural areas, were often suspicious of Americans with their “‘muzungu (white person) equipment’ as a little girl once called my camera,” said Heaton. “It was challenging to gauge these boundaries, even when talking to people we became friends with. The intensity of the violence that has occurred in Rwanda throughout the past few decades is difficult for us coming from the U.S. to even fathom. At times I felt that underlying our conversations was an unspoken ‘you could never really understand.’”

The team creating the documentary on illiteracy is continuing its work this fall. They hope the finished product will help raise money for a local organization fighting illiteracy and teaching critical thinking skills.

Heaton, who has worked for international press agency Agence France Press and will soon begin working as a reporter at United Press International in Washington D.C., would like to return to Rwanda within the year to launch the youth newspaper. She wants to work with a friend from Kigali who sees the youth newspaper as a way to encourage reconciliation among the next generation of Rwanda’s leaders. She also plans to conduct research on freedom of the press in Rwanda.