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Instilling Empathy: Healing and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda

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As her Action Project, Rebecca Mironko created a digital exhibition exploring empathy and justice after the 1994 Rwandan genocide through historical and intergenerational lenses.

“My father’s research and our family’s history made me realize that healing extends beyond formal justice into the personal realm of empathy and storytelling,” Rebecca introduces the inspiration behind her ambitious project.

“I wanted to explore how my father’s work could be re-examined to help others—particularly younger generations—understand the complex emotions tied to justice and healing,” she adds.

About the Project

The Action Project addresses the ongoing struggle with trauma and healing in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Though legal mechanisms like the Gacaca courts provided some justice, there is still a need for deeper understanding of how families and individuals reconcile with the trauma across generations. Rebecca’s project explores this through personal narratives, focusing on the emotional and psychological toll of genocide, which often isn’t addressed sufficiently by legal systems alone.

“By presenting my father’s personal archive and interviews, the project offers a lens into how families can foster empathy and healing while passing down critical lessons about justice and reconciliation.”

Project Development

First, Rebecca dove into her father’s personal archive, which included his academic research, personal notes, and interviews on the 1994 genocide. She then conducted interviews with her father to understand not only his academic perspective but also his personal views on healing and justice.

Justice isn’t just legal—it’s also about humanizing those affected by conflict.

One of the most touching moments was during an interview with her father, when Rebecca asked how he personally dealt with the emotional weight of his research. “He paused for a long time, reflecting on the difficulty of processing the stories he had heard. He shared how empathy allowed him to continue his work, not as an academic exercise, but as a human responsibility,” Rebecca describes the moment. This moment shifted her understanding of how justice isn’t just legal—it’s also about humanizing those affected by conflict. This conversation deepened Rebecca’s appreciation for the emotional labor behind his work, and it redefined her approach to the project.

Finally, she carefully curated materials for a digital exhibition, ensuring the project combined historical analysis with personal narratives. The final project was presented as a digital exhibition, incorporating multimedia elements to engage the audience. Rebecca relied on Microsoft sway to best incorporate the audio, visual, and text into a multimedia presentation to bring the narrative to life.

Lessons Learned

As one of the main challenges, Rebecca mentions balancing the academic rigor of her father’s research with the personal and emotional weight it carries. “It was difficult to find the right tone, one that would honor the seriousness of the subject while making it accessible to a broad audience,” she admits.

Another challenge was the technical side—translating a deeply emotional topic into a digital format required working closely with designers to ensure the message wasn’t diluted.

Personal stories have the power to resonate far more deeply than statistics or legal frameworks alone.

Rebecca’s advice to someone undertaking a similar project would be to “focus on the personal stories—they have the power to resonate far more deeply than statistics or legal frameworks alone. Don’t be afraid to navigate through emotions; it’s a necessary part of making the narrative relatable.”

Next Steps

In Rebecca’s words, this is an ever-evolving project. Rebecca is continuing to explore her father’s archive, ask him questions, and flesh out the narratives of his story. She hopes to one day create a larger work, perhaps a documentary, to bring together all of this work.

 

Updated October 2024