Family Photos.

Here are some family photos from Kiziba Refugee Camp, Rwanda. Thousands of families like this one live in the camp—and have lived here for years--unable to return to their homes in Congo because it is not safe to do so.

Thanks to the work of the American Refugee Committee, the United Nations and other organizations these families live in relative safety in the camp, with access to health care, clean water, sanitary facilities, schools and income generating activities. But what they really want is to return home—to their country, their villages, their land—and to raise their families in peace.

Take a look at the pictures and see what is familiar. A dad with his children, a mother with her baby, the whole family together in what for them is the front yard.





Now take another look and see what may not be so familiar. The way in which the family is dressed, the color of their skin, the green Rwandan hills, the laundry hung out to dry, the roofs of the refugee houses in the background.

Put these family photos next to some of your own and ask yourself, what is it, really, that makes us the same and what makes us different? Which matters more? Could this be my family? And if it were, what would we do? Where would we go? What is our future? Would anyone help us?