The Rwandan Orphan Quilting Project was first conceived by Sedona residents Dottie Webster and Suzanne Connolly after their first visit to Rwanda. While doing trauma- relief work with genocide survivors at El Shaddai orphanage in Kigali they worried about the older children who would be leaving the orphanage with little education and no job skills.

While in Rwanda they purchased as much of the beautiful real wax processed African batik fabric as they could fit in their suitcases. The Sedona Red Rock Quilters, headed by local resident Winnie Wells used the fabrics to create six beautiful sample quilts which Dottie and Suzanne took back to Rwanda the following year. After their first trip to Rwanda they found that Dr. Sandra Bagely formerly with the U.S Embassy in Rwanda had also dreamed of helping the older children by teaching them to create quilts. Dr. Bagley contacted a friend, quilter Daisy Gale, who also accompanied Dottie and Suzanne on the return trip to Rwanda.

What you see above is the very first quilt produced by these children. It is made of 100% cotton real wax process batik and quilted by hand by six orphans all of whom survived the 1994 genocide.

The money received from your quilt purchase will be returned in entirety to the Rwandan Orphans. One half will go to the quilters who created this beautiful piece of artwork and nearly one half to the orphanage itself, serving 400 orphans most of them formerly street children. A small percentage will go to pay a local quilting teacher and to purchase materials. Thank you for helping the children of Rwanda.