Nashua Telegraph, NH
April 14 2006
Students educate peers on horrors of genocide abroad
By MICHAEL BRINDLEY, Telegraph Staff
With picture after picture of dead bodies displayed on the screen
behind her, Sarah Weinstein talks about the history of genocide in
the world. Nashua High School South students put on two assemblies
Friday to educate fellow students about the atrocities that have
claimed so many lives in Darfur, Sudan, and other parts of the world.
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The uneasiness was palpable, as the audience had just finished
watching a slideshow depicting the horrors of mass genocide over the
past several decades. That was precisely the reaction the students
putting on the presentation were hoping for.
`It just seemed like no one said a word,’ said Kelci Adams, a junior
at Nashua High School South. `It was just silent. One girl was
crying. We weren’t expecting that.’
On the overhead projector in the Nashua High School South auditorium,
the audience, made up of students and school staff, was shown
gruesome images of human brutality, dating back to the Armenian
genocide, which spanned from 1915-17.
Moving ahead in time to the Holocaust and advancing to the 1994
genocide in Rwanda, the students making the presentation finally made
their way to the focus of Friday’s assembly – the genocide occurring
in Darfur, Sudan.
Adams is part of the student organization `Not In Our School,’ a
tolerance committee associated with the student senate. The group
hosted two assemblies Friday to help students understand the
atrocities that continue today in other parts of the world.
`We just want people to know what’s going on,’ said senior Sarah
Weinstein, chairwoman of the group. She helped start it last year
after learning in her French class about the genocide occurring in
Darfur.
`I had no idea what Darfur was,’ she said, but she knew she wanted to
learn more about it and do what she could to help.According to
savedarfur.org, at least 400,000 people have been killed in a
conflict in the region that has spanned more than three years. In
addition, 2 million civilians have been displaced, forced to leave
their homes.
A militia group known as the Janjaweed is responsible for the
killing. Just last month, as many as 400 people were killed during a
single incident in Chad, an African country that borders the Darfur
region.
Last year, Weinstein made a DVD about the genocide and displayed it
in the hallways as students went to their classes. But she said that
wasn’t effective, so this year, she wanted to organize an assembly.
During the presentation, junior Vijay Setty tried to put the number
of people killed into perspective for the audience, by using the high
school’s 2,000-student population as a measuring stick.
`In less than a week, we would all be dead,’ he told the audience.
Outside of the auditorium, there were sign-up sheets for a `peaceful
gathering’ outside of City Hall on May 19. There were also handmade
bracelets for students to take with them, as a reminder of the
genocide.
The students began planning the assemblies in November. Weinstein
said the group had to fundraise to buy the bracelets, so they could
be provided to students for free. The money for the bracelets went to
help the people in the region.
Weinstein said the group has also sent letters to U.S. Sens. Judd
Gregg and John Sununu, and she received letters back, explaining what
they were each doing to bring attention to the situation in Darfur.
Adams said she and other students would be collecting new and used
blankets to send over to the Darfur region, as part of the Blankets
of Love project for the area.
As part of the presentation, students heard a prerecorded interview
with Assumpta Gakuba, a 2005 graduate of Nashua South, who survived
the genocide in Rwanda, although she lost most of her family.
Gakuba is now a student at the University of New Hampshire. Weinstein
reinforced to students that Gakuba was one of them.
Tom White, coordinator for educational outreach for the Cohen Center
for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, spoke at the morning
assembly and told students if they felt anything after seeing the
images, they had a responsibility to take action.
`It won’t count unless you do something,’ he said. `Buying a bracelet
is just the beginning.’
He urged students not to rely on the media to tell them what’s
important, because they aren’t going to cover issues like the Darfur
genocide.
Young people need to educate themselves and to make sure elected
officials understand their concerns, he said.
`The most significant thing you can do right now is protest,’ he told
students.
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