Rosamond "Roz" Halsey Carr, 1912-2006

While working as a fashion illustrator in New York City, Rosamond Halsey met her husband-to-be, Kenneth Carr, a hunter-explorer, and he persuaded Roz to marry him and return with him to the Belgian Congo in 1949. Their marriage did not last, but Roz's love of Africa had already taken hold.
Determined to make a go of it on her own, she moved to neighboring Rwanda where, eventually, she became the manager of a flower farm that grew Pyrethrum, which was widely used as source of an insecticide. It was in Rwanda that she spent the next 50 years of her life; she was witness to the end of colonialism as well as the unrest between the Hutu and the Tutsi, but her passion and devotion for this beautiful country and its people never wavered.
It was also in Rwanda that Carr met the renowned mountain gorilla researcher and activist, Dian Fossey. Carr and Fossey remained close friends until Fossey's untimely death in 1985. Roz reported that her friend would write to her from Karisoke every 10 days without fail. Dian's death was a great blow to Roz.
In April of 1994, during the horror of the Rwandan genocide, Roz was forced to leave her home in Mugongo and return to the United States. After several months of watching the horror unfold before her eyes on television, she knew that she could no longer play a passive role while so many people she loved obviously needed her, so she bravely returned home to find the farm she loved ransacked and vandalized, and all of her worldly possessions stolen or destroyed. Heartbreaking as that was, it only strengthened her resolve to help, and her attention turned to the orphaned children of the genocide.
The painful process of rebuilding Mugongo began, and a converted building used for drying flowers became a dormitory for children - many who came from a nearby refugee camp. So, at the age of 82, Roz became a mother for the first time and helped to begin the healing process for 40 traumatized youngsters whose parents were killed or lost in the chaos and confusion of the genocide. Thus the Imbabazi Orphanage was born. Over the next 12 years, the orphanage would be forced to move four times and the number of children would vary (sometimes as many as 100).
In 2005, after the completion of new dormitories, Roz and the children were able to move back to the farm in Mugongo for the first time in a decade. Her dream of returning home again had been realized.
On September 29th 2006, Roz passed away at the age of 94 and was laid to rest in the ground of her beloved Mugongo.
If you would like to make a donation to the Imbabazi Orphanage, where Roz's work will be continued, please make your checks payable to: PIC/Roz Carr Memorial Fund. Your contribution will go directly to the Imbabazi. Please mail it to:

Roz Carr Memorial Fund
Columbus Zoo
Partners In Conservation
Attn: Debbie Elder
P.O. Box 400
Powell, OH 43065
USA

If you would like more information about Partners In Conservation, visit the Columbus Zoo website or send an email directly to Debbie Elder.

Barbara DeLorme

Rosamond Halsey Carr published her experiences in the book "Land of a Thousand Hills" in 1999.

Barbara DeLorme is a founding member of Partners In Conservation (PIC) at the Columbus Zoo. She has worked extensively with PIC for the past 15 years both in the U.S as well as Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo. DeLorme is employed as an IT Business Consulting & Analysis Specialist at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, Ohio and has worked there for 29 years. She resides in Harlem Township, Ohio with her husband, five horses, three dogs and a cat. She holds a degree in Veterinary Technology.

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