SUPPORT THE IMBABAZI ORPHANAGE
Roz Carr, the founder of the Imbabazi Orphanage, was an amazing American woman who went to Rwanda with her husband in 1949. The marriage did not last, but Roz fell in love with the beauty of Rwanda and the dignity of its people and decided that she wanted to live there. To care for herself, Roz purchased land near the Virunga Mountains and started a business growing and selling cut flowers.
During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Roz hid her neighbors on her farm to save their lives. When the insurgents found out about this they sent word that they were coming to the farm to kill her. Roz escaped to the Democratic Republic of Congo and returned to the United States. After watching the horrific accounts of the genocide on television, Roz returned to Rwanda in August 1994. When she returned everything she owned had been destroyed - just like the homes, schools, and businesses of her Rwandan neighbors. At the age of 82, Roz rebuilt her home and flower business, and founded the Imbabazi Orphanage for children whose families were killed during the genocide. (In the Kinyarwanda language, "Imbabazi" means "a place where you will receive all the love and care a mother would give.”)
In 1995, there were 42 children at Imbabazi and PIC began providing operating expenses for the orphanage. To accommodate the growing number of children that needed a home, PIC and generous donors funded the construction of a new orphanage. With love, guidance and patience, Roz helped more than 400 children recover from the horrors they witnessed.
Rosamond Carr died on September 29, 2006 at the age of 94. To learn more about this remarkable woman, please read her memoir, Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda (Viking 1999), by Rosamond Halsey Carr and Ann Howard Halsey.
PIC continues helping care for 91 children still living at the orphanage by funding tuition fees for secondary and college students. PIC is also funding the Gucutsa Program that prepares young people to transition to independent living.
PIC realized that supporting an orphanage didn’t exactly fit within our conservation objectives, but we knew that it was the right thing to do. However, PIC’s partnership with the orphanage earned the respect of Rwandan government, which, in turn, opened doors for PIC to have productiveconservation discussions with Rwandan wildlife authorities.
Since 1995, the PIC team has made an annual trip to the Imbabazi Orphanage. In 2009, one of the founding members of PIC, Jeff Ramsey, accepted the position of Executive Director at the orphanage.