I stayed in the orphanage, trying to find ways to help people threatened with death. I believed that to die next to my neighbors and brothers was a better choice than to tell those people to leave.

-  Damas Mutezintare Gisimba, Rwanda

It would be really cowardly to do nothing for someone who is dying before you. Many people hid in a forest where the murderers would not dare enter. We spent the night among bees. Later, I helped to them escape to Congo across the river.

-  Augustin Kamegeri, Rwanda

During the last 20 years, countries around the world have been torn apart by ethnic, religious, and political violence. Shattered social relations, mutual distrust, unhealed wounds, and narratives of hatred and revenge devastate communities, leaving them vulnerable to future outbreaks of violence.

In each violent narrative, however, there are also remarkable stories of ordinary heroes who risk their lives to save members of targeted groups. These stories, unfortunately, are hidden in the rubble of violence and despair, at risk of being lost with the passage of time. The Rescuers Project is a peacebuilding program that supports healing and reconciliation in post-conflict countries by recording and highlighting the stories of those who resisted overwhelming prejudice and violence by reaching out to condemned groups. These rescuers are the emblems of hope.

PROOF’s team has been photographing, recording and filming the stories of the remarkable people who saved others while risking their lives to do so. The rescuers who have been documented lived through the Holocaust, Cambodian, Rwandan and Bosnian genocides.

In addition, a play, based around the testimonies of the rescuers has been created in collaboration with  Mimi Lieber, noted actor and director. Ben Affleck will narrate a documentary film about the rescuers is in production.

To date the Rescuers project has travelled throughout Rwanda and Spain and was most recently in Sarajevo.  It is now starting to travel around the United States opening at Yale University in November.  Also in November, the Rescuers will open in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at Meta House and workshops with Cambodian youth will be conducted in conjunction with the exhibition, led by Proof’s local partner, Youth for Peace.

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