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Global Press Journal reporters carry their cameras as they work and live. The moments they capture highlight human connection across the globe.
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Kibaya, Rwanda
Faustin Mfitumukiza, 23, carries a banana tree trunk to feed his cows in Kibaya, a village in Rwanda’s Rubavu district. Since the Rwandan government forbade farmers from grazing cows outside their pens because of the danger of spreading diseases, farmers have preferred to feed their cattle with cheap banana trees.
Goma, North Kivu, DRC
Health workers at the border of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo ask residents to wash their hands and have their temperatures taken, in hopes of preventing the spread of Ebola. A month ago, an outbreak was declared in Beni, a DRC town about 520 kilometers (323 miles) from Goma. Since then, well over 100 cases have been reported. A few people have survived, thanks to a new vaccine.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
A voter drops off her ballot at a polling location in Rwanda’s Rubavu district during parliamentary elections. In Rwanda, elections are celebrated like weddings, hence the decorations. The candidates are viewed as the voters’ brides.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
Clementine Nikuze has transformed old tires into planters at her home in Rwanda’s Rubavu District. Nikuze, a mother of four, turned tire gardens into a business. Customers pay her 15,000 Rwandan francs (about $17) to come to their homes and install small tire gardens.
Rugerero, Rwanda
Shadrack Byukusenge, 8, draws water from the Sebeya River in Rugerero, a sector in Rwanda’s northwestern Rubavu district. After heavy rains blocked the pipes that carry water to his village of Rushubi, Shadrack walked 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) to retrieve water from the river.
Nyundo, Rwanda
Francois Samvura (right) and Pasteur Nsabumuremyi cut lumber for customers in the Nyundo sector of Rwanda’s Rubavu district. They camp near the trees and usually cut two or three per day.
Kibaya, Rubavu District, Rwanda
In Kibaya village in Rwanda’s Rubavu District, Denise Feza (center) plays a homemade game that involves jumping in the middle of a long rope wrapped around the hips of two friends. These children enjoy creating games to play in the afternoons, after they’ve helped their parents cultivate farmland.
Kanama, Rubavu District, Rwanda
In Kamuhoza, an area in the Kanama sector of Rwanda’s Rubavu district, residents and local authorities fill sandbags to protect homes and property from flooding during the rainy season, which lasts from March to May. The group also planted trees to help prevent erosion, which commonly occurs when the local Sebeya River floods.
Gisenyi, Rubavu District, Rwanda
Children and young adults from various youth associations gather around a cache of confiscated drugs about to be burned by police and local officials in the city of Gisenyi in Rwanda's Rubavu District. The event was held to warn the young people against drug abuse. The drugs had been confiscated during arrests.
Gisenyi, Rubavu District, Rwanda
Beatrice Mugorewera lies on a public beach on the shores of Lake Kivu in Rwanda's Gisenyi sector. Mugorewera, who has rheumatoid arthritis, does this every Sunday, because she feels that the weight of the sand massages her body, she says.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
Residents of Rwanda's Rubavu district participated in its first Car-Free Day on Jan. 28. The event included sports, jogging and other exercise as well as health checkups. The event aims to encourage participants in key areas of the city of Gisenyi to avoid using cars on weekends and instead to get involved in exercise or sports.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
The Rwanda traditional dance club of a girls’ school, Lycee Notre Dame D’Afrique de Nyundo, performs at the Umuganda Stadium in the Gisenyi sector of Rwanda’s Rubavu District. The students were performing for their teachers during the 16th International Teachers Day.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
Fatuma Uwimana embroiders a bedsheet for soon-to-be brides while waiting for customers to approach her produce stand at the Gisenyi Market in Rwanda’s Rubavu district. Her stitched bedsheets take one month to make and cost 15,000 Rwandan francs (about $18).
Lake Kivu, DRC
Solange Mutumwinka is helped out of a boat at a public beach on Lake Kivu, after her marriage to Justin Munyentwari (top) in the Gisenyi Sector of Rwanda’s Rubavu District. Couples who wed in Gisenyi can take a boat ride after the ceremony to have their photos taken on Lake Kivu.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
Visitors enjoy Gisenyi beach in Rwanda’s Rubavu district, on the shores of Lake Kivu, a large freshwater lake on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Rwanda, the beaches are open to everyone year-round, so many people cross the border from DRC, where there are fewer open beaches.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
People line up in Rubavu District in Rwanda’s Western Province to vote on Aug. 4 in a presidential election. More than 400 people had gathered by 7 a.m. at the College de Gisenyi Inyemeramihigo voting site. President Paul Kagame won in a landslide victory. The country amended its constitution in 2015 to allow him to run for a third term.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
Company owner Emmanuel Hategekimana (left) and employee Jean Paul Ndikumana pour finished paint into a bucket at the Hatega Co. Ltd. office in the Rugerero sector of Rwanda’s Rubavu district. Hategekimana, who founded the company, creates his paints using local soil and mixing the ingredients by hand.
Rubavu District, Rwanda
Marie Nyirarukundo sells eggplants, which she bought from local farmers, at the Mbugangari market in Rwanda’s Rubavu District, on the border of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nyundo, Rubavu, Rwanda
Jeanne d’Arc Uwimana (right) sews toys with Mariana Nyiragasigwa in Nyundo, a community in Rwanda’s western Rubavu district. The two women are members of KOMERA, a cooperative that helps to start businesses like this one, which brings together tailors to make clothes, bags, hats, carpets and toys.
Cyanzarwe, Rwanda
Canisius Habanabakize, a cabbage farmer from the town of Cyanzarwe, transports his crops by bicycle to the Mbugangari Market in Gisenyi, a port in western Rwanda. Farmers use bicycles to move their products to avoid paying for transportation or gasoline.
Kanembwe, Rubavu District, Rwanda
Theodosia Mukangoga, 24, carries cauliflower through Kanembwe village in Rwanda’s Rubavu district, on her way to the Mbugangari market in the town of Gisenyi, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away. Vegetable sellers say they earn 200 Rwandan francs (24 cents) per cauliflower in Gisenyi, compared with 150 francs (18 cents) in nearby villages.
Sebeya River, Rwanda
Justin Gakuru, who lives in Nkama village, crosses the Sebeya River on water pipes that connect with Rugerero, another village in Rwanda’s western Rubavu district. The pipes provide the closest link between the two communities.
Gihaya, Rwanda
Fishermen repair their nets on the island of Gihaya in western Rwanda. The island was once a residence of Juvénal Habyarimana, who was Rwanda’s president from the 1970s until the early 1990s. Now, children play football and fishermen work on their nets on the grassland. At nightfall, the fishermen cast their nets into Lake Kivu for small fish known locally as sambaza.