Kickstarter

My name is Jean-luc Dushime and I am a survivor of an unrecognized genocide perpetrated against refugees in DR Congo in 1996. The survivors were then driven 4,000 miles on foot across the country in what is locally known as ‘the long walk’. It is my duty in life to see that the world knows what happened and that those who died need not have done so in silence. Many of us have come to North America and I am going to interview, photograph, and create video of their stories and lives. I will then present these stories in a variety of ways to help tell the story and one of those ways is in the creation of a series of books. The first book, titled “Under Our Mothers’ Wings”, is inspired by my own mother’s inexplicable strength to carry my 9-month-old brother and protect her children while walking through the harsh jungle of Congo. The book will contain photographs and stories of mothers who survived the genocide, the long walk, and were then able to go to North America to live. All money raised will be used to do interviews with survivors using a variety of media and create books to tell the story. Thank you very much for your support, you are giving a voice to forgotten lives, remembering a buried history, and commemorating those that died in silence.

Please find some of my story and photography here:

http://voiceofwitness.org/2010/04/congo-excerpt-jean-luc/

http://dushime.zenfolio.com/

http://www.7dvt.com/2010picturing-new-america