Morris Catholic High School: A lesson in Forgiveness.

Today, I had the privilege to witness Marie Claudine Mukamabano give

her “Never Again, the need for Forgiveness” speech. The event took place as
part of the Global Initiative at Morris Catholic High School in Morris County,
New Jersey. I met Ms. Mukamabano and one of her Public Relations
Assistants, Ms. Titilayo Kazeem at 7am at Penn Station in New York City. We
made the trip together for the event that was to take place at 9:30 am.

Dr. Gradone, the school’s Principal, met us at the Denville Train

Station. After the small talk we began discussing what Ms. Mukamabano
would need for her presentation. While we were served a nice complimentary
breakfast we had the opportunity to speak with two representatives of the
Catholic Relief Services and how important the Global Initiatives of the High
School was to making students aware of their global environments. While we
all went to the gymnasium where the presentation was taking place, Ms.
Mukamabano met with the four high school students she was going to dress
in traditional Rwandan attire for the event.

Dr. Gradone introduced Ms. Mukamabano in front of the entire

student body. Ms. Mukamabano started her presentation with
acknowledgments and went on to speak about her life in Rwanda. She spoke
about her family life and childhood in her native country and gave the
audience a sense of how ordinary life in Rwanda was before the Genocide of
1994. She then shared her heartbreaking experience during the Genocide
and how much she was directly impacted by the tragedy. You could hear the
gasps of horror and compassion from the audience when she told of how
almost her entire family was murdered and she is left today with only a
brother and a sister.

Ms. Mukamabano did a great job of keeping the audience enthralled by

incorporating them into her presentation. She asked several questions that
the students were more than willing to answer. While she was discussing the
importance of keeping your dream, of making your dream come true she
asked some of the students what their dreams were. Most of them yelled
out their diverse answers ranging from “I want to be a rock start!” to “I
would like to be a doctor!” She told her audience how important it was to
focus on their dream and not let themselves be led astray.
 Another interesting part of the event was when she using her
experience to explain was explaining the importance of forgiveness in our
lives today. She elaborated on how it is crucial to be able to forgive because
without that we would not be able to go on. We would be stuck in the past,
filled with bitterness, anger and thoughts of revenge, stopping us from
advancing in our lives. She told of how she has forgiven those that killed her
family because without that she would not have been able to go on and honor
her mother’s memory. Ms. Mukamabano made all the students get up and sing
about peace and how without peace there is no life for anyone. It was quite
inspiring to see how much the students got involved in the singing.

Ms. Mukamabano spoke of her non-profit organization, the Kuki Ndiho

Foundation that strives to help the one million Rwandan orphans of the
Rwandan Genocide. Her foundation also provides help towards the fight
against HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. She showed several pictures of the orphans in
their daily lives. She enumerated the many ways to help the orphans in
Rwanda with a monetary contribution, no matter how small it is, it adds up,
she said. She encouraged the audience to log on to the foundation’s website
or 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 Hutu
friends that believed that me and my mother were also Hutu because we had
fake 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 still
too 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 and
wanted 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
can send a child to school. You can also volunteer your time like an intern
from City College just did last summer. She went to help teach English to
the kids in Rwanda. You can also participate in a pen pal program so you can
write to the kids to let them know they are not alone”

The presentation ended with a standing ovation from all the students
and one of the teachers came onto the stage to put the Rwandan flag on
their Global Initiatives tableau project. As principal Dr. Gradone told us
after the presentation, ”the last time my students were that happy and gave
a standing ovation was when they were told they would have two days of
vacation so you need to know that they liked you very, very much. You made a
big impact on them!” Students surrounded Ms. Mukamabano immediately
after the event. Some just wanted to say how much they appreciated her
speech. Other wanted to know how to contact her because they wanted to
help the Orphans of Rwanda.

It was easy to see how impressed students were by the presentation.

The four that were traditionally dressed and participated in the speech
were actually reluctant to give the attires back because they liked them
very much. Ms. Mukamabano was also quite impressed and happy by the
attention she was getting towards her Foundation but for her, it came down
to knowing she personally impacted her audience. She asked everyone that
came up to her one question “Which part of my presentation did you like the
most?” overwhelmingly, the answer was the personal emotional parts of her
own life that she shared. It helped students realize how much they had in
common with people that were from other countries.

As an observer and member of her audience, it was obvious to see the

impact Ms. Mukamabano has when she speaks. Through her speech, she
makes you realize that peace is primordial in our everyday lives. Forgiveness
is key to leading our lives and it is so important to forgive those that have
done you wrong. For students that go through petty fights in school, and let
themselves get resentful and angry with their aggressor and become
aggressors themselves, there is a need for them to understand that
forgiveness is the key to breaking this cycle. Our schools in America are
greatly affected by bullies and violence they bring into schools. There is a
lot of talk of how to stop this violence. After watching the positive impact
of Marie Claudine Mukamabano’s, I have to say that one of the best
decisions a principal could make for their school is to have such an
inspirational speaker that is willing to use her personal experience to inspire
forgiveness and peace in others. As for us, we can certainly incorporate 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 worlds such as the
Genocide in Darfur, Sudan happening today.