Genocide Memorial Sites, Rwanda
Country/Region
Project Summary
In February 2004 Levitt Bernstein were instructed by DFID to design and procure permanent memorials at three of the worst Genocide sites in time for the tenth anniversary in April of the same year.
Project Description
In April 1994, approximately 850,000 people were killed in the space of a few weeks in the Rwandan Genocide. Ten years later the sites of some of the worst atrocities were largely unchanged with quantities of human remains and possessions, weapons and other evidence exposed but not conserved.
In February 2004 Levitt Bernstein were instructed by DFID to design and procure permanent memorials at three of the worst Genocide sites in time for the tenth anniversary in April of the same year.
Difficulties included the extraordinary sensitivity of the project, lack of a national policy, different political interests, remoteness of the sites and shortage of funds. The results, based on full consultation with all the interested groups, conserve the sites and give them a sense of dignity without excessive intervention. They are popular with survivors and their families, cheap to maintain, low-cost and within budget.
For this project Levitt Bernstien was Highly Commended in the Small Consultancy (A) category of the British Expertise International Awards 2006.