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KUKI NDIHO FOUNDATION WHY DO I EXIST?Morris Catholic High School: Never Again, A Lesson in Forgiveness.

By ######

Bullying has become an epidemic in Americas schools today. It is a

growing issue that is well documented in our daily news. Although itsconsequences are constantly talked about what causes a child to become abully is still debated upon. Most children bully because they have beenthrough a trauma themselves and see bullying as the only way to cope. It is avicious cycle because children that are bullied either become bulliesthemselves or are forever emotionally damaged by their negativeexperiences.

One way to break this vicious cycle is to teach our childrenforgiveness, make them understand how important it is to forgive anotherperson that has hurt them. Bullies can forgive those that have hurt them andstop their damaging actions. Victims of bullies can learn to forgive and indoing so stop the cycle from spreading. A perfect way of achieving this vitalgoal is to show them forgiveness and its impact in other peoples lives.Watching and listening to Marie Claudine Mukamabano give her Never Again,the need for Forgiveness speech will help children learn why they need toforgive and that it is the only way chance they have of achieving asustainable life.

Marie Claudine Mukamabano is a Rwandan Activist, Model and Artistthat is a survivor of the tragic 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Ms. Mukamabano is amotivational speaker. I was privileged to attend one of her presentations atMorris Catholic High School in Morris County, New Jersey. She was part of aGlobal Initiative event that was geared towards helping students becomemore aware of the world around them. Her speech was titled Dr. Gradoneintroduced Ms. Mukamabano in front of the entire student body. Ms.Mukamabano, who was introduced by the principal Dr. Gradone, started herpresentation with acknowledgments and went on to speak about her life in

Rwanda.

Ms. Mukamabano first tried to make her audience aware of howordinary and peaceful her life before the Genocide was. Illustrated bypictures, you could hear the joy in her voice when she spoke about her familylife and childhood. She wanted to be an artist and spoke of how even though

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there is no life for anyone. It was quite inspiring to see how much thestudents got involved in the singing. Some even started giving the song abeat with their hands, some with chairs.

Ms. Mukamabano also spoke of her non-profit organization, the KukiNdiho Foundation that strives to help the one million Rwandan orphans ofthe Rwandan Genocide. Her foundation also provides help towards the fightagainst HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. She showed several pictures of the orphans intheir daily lives. She enumerated the many ways to help the orphans inRwanda with a monetary contribution, no matter how small it is, it adds up,she said. She encouraged the audience to log on to the foundations websiteor Facebook page to get more information. At the end of her presentation,Ms. Mukamabano answered several questions from the students. A few are

listed below.

Q: How did you survive the Genocide?A: I think that it was a miracle that I am alive today. I was almost

killed at a road stop by the Interahamwe but was saved by a group of Hutufriends that believed that me and my mother were also Hutu because we hadfake Hutu ID cards.

Q: How did your mother die?A: With tears and emotion evident in her face, Ms. Mukamabano

answered: I am sorry but some of the trauma that I went through are stilltoo hard for me to talk about. This is one of them

Q: When was the last time you went to Rwanda?A: 2005

Q: Are you afraid they will kill you when you go back to Rwanda?A: NO, the Genocide ended over 15 years ago

Q: why did genocide happen in Rwanda?A: because the Hutu, the majority of the population acted on hatred

for the Tutsi. They had many ignoble names for us, such as cockroaches andwanted to kill us all

Q: How can we help the orphans today?A: there are many ways to help. If you can spare $5, $10, $20 that

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can send a child to school. You can also volunteer your time like an internfrom City College just did last summer. She went to help teach English tothe kids in Rwanda. You can also participate in a pen pal program so you canwrite to the kids to let them know they are not alone

The presentation ended with a standing ovation from all the studentsand one of the teachers came onto the stage to put the Rwandan flag ontheir Global Initiatives tableau project. As Dr. Gradone told us after thepresentation, the last time my students were that happy and gave astanding ovation was when they were told they would have two days ofvacation so you need to know that they liked you very, very much. You made abig impact on them! Students surrounded Ms. Mukamabano immediatelyafter the event. Some just wanted to say how much they appreciated her

speech and how they always though of forgiveness as an abstract notion. Oneof the students said the way you broke it down really made it easy for us tounderstand. Others wanted to know how to contact her because theywanted to help the Orphans of Rwanda.

It was easy to see how impressed students were by the presentation.There were four students that were traditionally dressed and brieflyparticipated in the speech. At the end they were actually reluctant to givethe attires back because they liked them very much. Ms. Mukamabano wasalso quite impressed and happy by the attention she was getting towards herFoundation but for her, it came down to knowing she personally impacted heraudience. She asked everyone that came up to her one question Which partof my presentation did you like the most? overwhelmingly, the answer wasthe personal emotional parts of her own life that she shared. It helpedstudents realize how much they had in common with people that were fromother countries.

As an observer and member of her audience, it was obvious to see theimpact Ms. Mukamabano has when she speaks. Through her speech, shemakes you realize that peace is primordial in our everyday lives. Forgivenessis key to leading our lives and it is so important to forgive those that havedone you wrong. For students that go through petty fights in school, and letthemselves get resentful and angry with their aggressor and becomeaggressors themselves, there is a need for them to understand thatforgiveness is the key to breaking this cycle. Of course, it is one thing to

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hear about forgiveness and it is another to actually practice it. I believethat students that understand it better and know that it will amelioratetheir lives, will be much more encouraged to practice it daily. They can takethe example of Ms. Mukamabano. After all, as one of the students said,

wow, if you can forgive the people that hurt your family so much, it makesus think about how angry we get at the small stuff everyday! Our schools inAmerica are greatly affected by bullies and the violence they bring intoschools. There is a lot of talk of how to stop this violence. After watchingthe positive impact of Marie Claudine Mukamabanos, I have to say that oneof the best decisions a principal could make for their school is to have suchan inspirational speaker that is willing to use her personal experience toinspire forgiveness and peace in others. As for us, we can certainlyincorporate her lesson in our daily lives by being aware of our world. We can

certainly try to do something about other violent situations in the worldssuch as the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan happening today.