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Rosamond Carr
(August 28, 1912 - September 29, 2006) |
Rosamond Carr, A Life’s Journey
posted: 10/05/2006
Founder of the Imbabazi Orphanage in Rwanda for orphaned children of the genocide, Volvo for life Safety Award winner Rosamond Carr passed away peacefully on September 29, 2006 in her home in Gisenyi, Rwanda. She was 94-years-old. Since founding the orphanage in 1994, Rosamond and her staff raised and cared for more than 400 children. Today, Imbabazi continues its mission, providing a safe haven for more than 120 orphans. Planter, adventurer, author, and humanitarian, Rosamond Carr led an eventful life. Born in 1912 in Orange, NJ, to a family of means, Carr traded her career as a fashion illustrator in New York City to marry a much older English husband, celebrated hunter-explorer Kenneth Carr. They departed for Africa in 1949, spending several years trekking through colonial-era Congo. Ultimately, the couple divorced, but Rosamond stayed on in nearby Rwanda. Here, Carr befriended a wide circle of African, European, and American notables and expatriates, including Dian Fossey, the renowned American primatologist. Their friendship was so significant that Carr, played by Julie Harris, featured prominently in Fossey’s biopic, Gorillas in the Mist. During a half century in the country, Carr witnessed the end of Belgian colonial dominance. Then came the fall of Rwanda. In the genocide of 1994, Carr barely escaped the terror. Many of her Rwandan friends did not. Rescued by Belgian soldiers during the height of the terror, Carr left for America with little more than the nightclothes she wore and whatever sundry items she could grasp in the escape. She left her home of several decades, never having a chance to say goodbye to her closest friends. Her virtual exile in America lasted but a few months. At age 82, and against the advice of friends, family, and the American diplomatic corps, Carr returned to what had become perhaps the most dangerous place on earth. She found her home and life’s work destroyed. Carr began rebuilding at her property, establishing a temporary orphanage to care for surviving children of the genocide. She called the orphanage “Imbabazi” – “a mother’s love” in the region’s dialect. For the next ten years, Carr worked dusk to dawn to keep the orphanage running and her adopted children safe, fed, and clothed. Rwanda’s continuing unrest forced her to relocate the orphanage numerous times before she could realize her long-held desire of returning to her cherished home in Mugongo. In her final years, Carr worked tirelessly to build a permanent safe haven to provide war orphans love, care, and education. Carr lived to realize her goal. Within hours of her passing, hundreds of Rwandans from all walks of life and from all corners of the far-flung countryside arrived, many by foot, at her second home in Gisenyi to pay their last respects. Thousands attended her funeral, from international dignitaries to local farmers. Carr lies buried at Mugongo, her home, and the land on which Imbabazi now stands. In life, Rosamond Carr often said, “One of the few regrets of my life is that I didn't have children of my own. Today, at the age of 94, I have more than one hundred.”
True to her vision, Imbabazi continues its mission of raising orphaned children – Hutus and Tutis – without ethnic distinctions, divisions, or barriers, long after Carr’s journey has now reached its end in her beloved land of a thousand hills, Rwanda.
How You Can Help Rosamond Carr
To help keep Rosamond Carr’s legacy alive, please send donations to:
Imbabazi Orphanage
c/o Ann H. Roehrs
546 Gramercy Lane
Downingtown, PA 19335
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