.jpg)
Stephanie Nyombayire will not Sleep Until the World Wakes up
By Linda A. Annan
Published: April 15, 200 7
Image courtesy/Stephanie Nyombayire
An archetypal behavior of today's 20 year-old at the approach of the end of school week may be a mixture of excitement and nervousness, perhaps anticipating the weekend's events – partying or going out with peers. For the indoor person a weekend might be a time for relaxation. For Stephanie Nyombayire, a Rwandan native and Junior at Swathmore University, Pennsylvania, a weekend means devoting her time to activism and advocacy for an intervention in the Darfur conflict –a reminder of her very own painful experience.
Nyombayire lost over 100 of her family members including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins during the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people, though she and her immediate family fled to Congo.
“You could still see the physical destruction and emotional destruction of the people,” she describes the aftermath of the genocide from the perspective of a 7 year-old –her age at the time.
“They talked about how this and this person survived, and how this and this other person had not. It was just a discouraged country and a discouraged people,” she reminisces.
Nyombayire is the fifth female of six children; she has two siblings currently living in the U.S., two others back home in Rwanda and another in China.
The loss of her family and lack of immediate action from international leaders during the genocide enticed her into activism and the founding of an organization in school with then-Swathmore College students Andrew Sniderman and Mark Hanis in 2004, to empower and engage citizens in taking action to protect civilians from violence like genocide and other atrocities and inhumane acts around the world. What began as a school club activity eventually turned into something else –it was formally recognized as a non-profit organization in the United States and named the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net) in 2005, of which Nyombayire is a spokesperson.
“The reason why we made it official was because there was a need for it,” she says of the organization.
On April 6, 2007, Nyombayire and her fellow GI-Net members hosted an event on campus to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and past similar crises around the world. Representatives from the Rwandan embassy in the United States and some Darfurian speakers were of those who attended.
“On one hand I'm sort of glad that people try to remember and talk about it and [are] not ignoring the issue. Obviously I'm sad because my family members were killed but also I'm pissed because the same thing is happening in Darfur and people are not reacting any differently than they did in Rwanda,” she expresses her feelings about the anniversary.
Although the world seems to be gradually grasping the depth of the Sudan crisis, the GI-Net is not loosening its grip on creating awareness throughout the country. The organization has already gained the support of many people including Gayle Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for American Congress, once based in Africa for about 20 years as a journalist to cover economic, military, and political affairs for the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and other notable networks. GI-Net has also held campaigns in support of their cause, one of them being its “100 Days of Action Campaign” organized in 2005 to pay respect to the lost lives of the 100-day Rwandan genocide in 1994. Other campaigns co-sponsored by the organization in 2006 included the “Rally to Stop Genocide” in Washington, D.C., which was led by prominent human rights activist George Clooney and politician Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) as well as Rwandan Paul Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the
movie Hotel Rwanda. Another participant was Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, an American-Jewish novelist and political activist.
On July 13, 2005, Nyombayire introduced President Bill Clinton on behalf of GI-Net at the annual Campus Progress conference, a comprehensive effort of the Center for American Progress to empower new generations of progressive leaders in colleges and universities nationwide. In her speech she shared her story and encouraged students, educators and policymakers to “stand up and fight against the ongoing genocide in Darfur.”
NATURAL HAIR AT THE WORK PLACE
Posted: July 12, 2010
CUT YOUR LOSSES
Posted: June 09, 2010
WHEN TO CALL IT QUITS
Posted: May 21, 2010
SHATTERING THE GLASS CEILING
Posted: Apr. 22, 2010
WISH THERE WERE MORE OF YOU?
Posted: Apr. 5, 2010
NAME ISSUES
Posted: Mar. 25, 2010