Single mothers
Jean Bizimana was two years old when he became an orphan. For 100 days in 1994, a genocide in Rwanda claimed over 800,000 lives, including Bizimana’s parents. Like thousands of other children, he was raised in an orphanage. In 2019, Bizimana, having not been raised by a mother himself, set out to ask Rwandan women what it means to be a mother. Specifically, he was interested in what it means to be a single mother since in Rwandan culture they have long been looked down upon as outcasts and pariahs. Despite the fact that there are now more women in positions of power in the government than men, single mothers continue to face more hardships from business closures and government regulations during this period of the pandemic. For his project, Uri Mwiza Mama, Bizimana interviewed and photographed these women in their daily life, asking the question: what does it mean to be a single mother in Rwanda today?
- Documentary DP
- Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist