From Yael Glick and Amy Rathgeb, the co-founders of Kuleba Exchange:

For several years, we taught a class on genocide to New York City public high school students. The students were always particularly affected by what they learned about the 1994 Rwandan genocide and had insightful questions about life in post-genocide Rwanda. We were unable to answer many of their questions. In the summer of 2007 we traveled to Rwanda to work with young genocide survivors on documenting their lives through photography, video and writing.

In a village called Umudugudu wa Kinyinya, we worked with a group of young Rwandans who were orphaned during the genocide. They were inspired by the photography and writing of our New York City students and spent a month photographing the daily life of their village. After the month was over, we celebrated their creativity with a final art exhibit in the village. In the following months, the students from New York and Rwanda began communicating by email, sending each other text and photos.

These young people who have experienced so many obstacles have hopes and dreams for their future. Kuleba Exchange grew out of the inspirational interaction between the New York and Rwandan students and the potential for compassion and understanding that we witnessed through the online exchange.

After returning home we decided that online communication was not enough. Many of our New York students and Rwandan students have never traveled outside of their communities; it was time to learn outside of the classroom. In July along with Aimee Lichtenfeld, social worker, we launched our pilot exchange program taking four recent high school graduates to the village of Umudugudu to meet their online friends in person. This upcoming summer we hope to bring Rwandan students to New York City to continue the rich exchange.

Our organization was named by our Rwandan students because kuleba means to look or to see in Kinyarwanda, the official language of Rwanda. We want young people to grow into adults that see the world around them with broadened perspectives and the tolerance that is born from exposure.