The Muhlenberg Weekly

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News

Members of Hillel worked with the Center for Ethics to arrange Stephanie Nyombayire's visit to the College.

Wed., Nov. 7 Stephanie Nyombayire spoke out against the genocide in Darfur as part of this year's Center foor Ethics program. The event was co-sponsored by both the Center for Ethics and Hillel. Nyombayire is a Rwandan student at Swarthmore College who has put in endless amounts of time and effort to help end the genocide in Darfur. Having lost over one hundred family members herself in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Nyombayire speaks to her audiences with personal experience of what genocide has the power to do.

During her presentation Nyombayire briefed the audience on the situation that took place in Rwanda, and the one that is currently taking place in Darfur. She could not stress enough to everyone there that genocide is happening now, and that it is up to everyone who knows about genocide to help put it to a stop. Nyombayire also has very recent stories and experiences about the genocide in Darfur because in March of 2005 she was selected by MTVUniversity to be their Sudan Correspondent. While the project had intended for Nyombayire to travel to the Darfur region of Sudan, a denied entry lead her to visit refugee camps in Chad.

During her presentation Nyombayire showed pictures of the camps that are located in the middle of the desert. The tents that the refugees live in are little more than a tarp or some kind of plastic attempting to provide some kind of shelter. While at the camps she had the opportunity to meet with children who had been through horrific encounters and women who held their dying children in their arms. While the numbers of the genocide have reached significantly high levels, Nyombayire reminded everyone that each individual affected by genocide has his or her own story to tell.

During her discussion about the refugees she met, Nyombayire seemed very affected by the impact that the genocide is having on children. When she asked three children of the ages six, eight, and ten to make drawings for her, she received pieces of paper that expressed death and violence. The children of Darfur have come to know only death and violence because it is the only thing they see in their lives, and while there is an image of what the refugees wish their home country could look like one day, there is little hope among them for that image to become a reality.

Continued...

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