Amputee football players in Rwanda find healing and a sense of community

AI Summary

Amputee football players in Rwanda have found healing through sports, fostering community ties as they pursue their ambitions. This sport provides an avenue for empowerment and social cohesion post-genocide.

The players struck their crutches against each other as they chased a soccer ball, as well as a larger dream of competing at the global level. Amputee football, a seven-a-side version of the game in which players roam the field on crutches and goalkeepers have one arm, has grown steadily in Rwanda over the past decade. In the capital Kigali, amputees play to foster healing and social cohesion after traumas that include the country's darkest period: the 1994 genocide, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period.