SURF Survivors Fund

We are also designing for SURF Survivors Fund who work to improve the lives of the Rwandan Survivors of Genocide. SURF acts as a channel to distribute financial assistance to groups, individuals and charitable organisations in the day-to-day operations of bringing the people of Rwanda hope, safety, and a decent standard of living.

In a similar fashion to Kids Company, we have submitted the Surf garden to the Royal Horticultural Society for exhibition in the Visionary Category of the Tatton Flower Show. Though the design is markedly abstract and conceptual in execution ( these are hallmarks of Visionary Gardens), the theme of the garden deals with the story of Agnes, a Rwandan refugee who at the age of only seven actually made this frantic journey through the Congo jungle, pursued by the DRC militias for three years fleeing Rwanda where her family was lost to the Genocide. She was miraculously rescued by the Red Cross and started a new life in London where she now lives and works as a freelance member of staff for TheDesign CIC.

This garden, then serves as a metaphor for a Rwandan Refugee’s flight to freedom – though the conceptual mechanism may well be familiar to all who long to escape their own mental jungle.The underlying design concepts speak of survival through a desperate struggle to ‘follow the light’, oscillating between Rivers of ‘Blood’ and ‘Life’, ultimately turning circles in pursuit of a ‘Promised land’.This garden speaks of genocide – people simply ‘disappear’ here, leaving only their abandoned clothes and possessions to populate its jungle.

This garden will be rebuilt for SURF Survivors Fund, at a site of their choice, as a memorial to their struggle.

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