by Admin | August 11th, 2008
Looking out at the broken skulls at the Genocide Memorial, lined up unceremoniously in an almost business-like filing of those no longer with us, it is impossible not to be struck by the cracks made by machetes, or by the sheer number of lives lost. The commemoration here, the truth itself, lies in the familiarity. Everyone has a dead body: a niece, a best friend, both parents, many memories. Everyone has a little fear, still left over and lurking beneath the surface. And everyone knows the need for reconciliation, for forgiveness, for justice, for building a new and peaceful tomorrow.
I have just returned from a month in two war-torn regions of Africa, traveling through Sierre Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda-where fourteen short years ago one million people were killed in three short months. Six of us from the US represented the Child and Family Institute of New York’s St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital Center, where I have served for sixteen years as director of a small, alternative, public high school. We went to examine the trauma experienced by former child soldiers, and the treatments currently offered. We went to compare the situations of African youth with the young people we attempt to serve, who have witnessed and experiences trauma and violence of their own. We went to try to help, and we return having been helped. For in the countless stories we heard, we were enriched by the strong sense that people were working in ingenious and innovative ways to ensure that the phrase “Never Again” would never again ring hollow.
Looking out at the engaged eyes and cautious smiles of the boy dancers at the Child Ex-Combatant Rehabilitation Center in central Rwanda, it is impossible not to be struck by their hope. They have learned more than the cultural characteristics of a few musical moves. Having been taught the ways of the gun and the sword, they now understand-in the words of National Unity and Reconciliation Commissioner Futuma Ndangiza-that “with education we can learn another way.” Peace education seems to be making a modest headway throughout the continent that has been responsible for so many un-credited contributions. But the grassroots work in those regions of Africa which have been hardest hit by recent wars are especially inspiring. It is up to those of us in other parts of this war torn world to join to the lead from these children and youth, for a change.