Photo by: Scott Casey
Nearly 5,000 students and members of the Denver community heard Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, speak last Wednesday about rebuilding his country 10 years after the most brutal and fastest genocide in history. The Rwandan genocide ended in the slaughter of 1 million people in just 100 days.
Kagame visited the DU campus in an event intended to create global awareness and to call each individual in attendance to action.
“We need to forgive and not forget; bury the dead, not the past,” said Kagame.
The crowd in Magness greeted Kagame with a standing ovation. If there was one message that Kagame wanted students to take from his speech, he said earlier at a press conference, it would be that the people of Rwanda are trying to put the history of the genocide behind them.
“We have behind us 600 years as a nation state,” he said. “We [are trying to] move beyond death and destruction. “Our history does not start with genocide and colonialism.”
He said that Rwanda is working to go back to being a “normal country.”
“The genocide has given rise to a number of lessons,” said Kagame. “In the end, nobody benefitted from the genocide. Living together is better for [everybody].”
Kagame spoke about the progress that Rwanda is making by pursuing reconciliation and growth.
“We’ve paid attention to preventable diseases such as HIV and malaria and rebuilding telecommunications infrastructures,” said Kagame.
Living is still tough, though, for Rwandan citizens, said Kagame. Hospitals are run without what we, in the U.S. would consider bare essentials, said Winston Hewett, who helped make an assessment of Rwandan hospitals and health clinics nation-wide. Nurses and doctors are treating patients with no latex gloves or clean syringes, a dangerous prospect in a country where 60 percent of hospital residents are HIV/AIDS patients.
Despite the large audience, the arena fell to a dead silence when DU President Marc Holtzman called for a moment of silence to remember and honor the victims of the genocide.
“Tonight you will learn about evil,” he said in his introduction of Kagame. “But tonight we are [also] here to experience hope.”
In addition to Kagame’s speech and Holtzman’s introduction, the event included two short films produced by Little Voice and a call to action by Doug Jackson, president and CEO of Project C.U.R.E., a Denver-based, non-profit organization that delivers medical supplies to countries in need of assistance. C.U.R.E. is donating $10 million of supplies to aid in the reconstruction of Rwanda
“It wouldn’t be right to leave tonight without a challenge,” he said. “Reconciling is not just good for people in Rwanda. It is good for people here.”
He then invited the audience to go home and think about what they could do as individuals.
“Get involved to change the world,” he said. “Find a place to serve, and find a way to go serve in the spirit of reconciling and in the spirit of rebuilding.”
Despite the everyday hardships that Rwandans face, the people are hopeful and finally peaceful, said Jim Jackson, founder of Project C.U.R.E. and father of Doug.
“My heart was full because I saw a land of healing, hope, justice and redemption,” Jim Jackson said of his December visit to Rwanda. Jim Jackson is the founder of Project C.U.R.E.
But the country and its people still have a long road of healing ahead of them.
“It will take an entire community of nations to understand and care about what happened in Rwanda,” said Kagame. “And it will take a world to prevent it [from happening again].”
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Associated story: C.U.R.E. helps
A man came upon a boy throwing starfish back into the ocean one by one. He paused and watched the boy a short time before speaking.
“What are you doing?” the man asked the boy. “What difference can you make to a whole ocean of starfish?”
Picking up another starfish and pitching it into the water, the boy said, “It will make all the difference to that starfish.”
This story represents the spirit with which organizations such as Project C.U.R.E. and the Institute of International Education welcomed President Kagame to DU. Kagame’s speech was delivered in the midst of the Rwandan genocide’s 10th anniversary.
The story of the boy and the starfish was a part of a series of two movies that showed the condition of the country and its people.
“At no time did we lose hope,” said a Rwandan minister in one of the films. “We need to stop surviving and start living.”
To help Rwandans start living, said Project C.U.R.E.’s Doug Jackson, the organization has commited to sending $10 million of medical supplies to the country. To date, C.U.R.E. has sent three shipments, filled mostly with medical supplies such as latex gloves and clean syringes.
Jackson challenged the audience to find a way to make a difference. “Get involved to change the world,” he said.
For information about how to volunteer, visit C.U.R.E. at www.projectcure.org.
