On Monday 28 August Years 10, 11, and 12 students participated in workshops with Academics from Sydney Universities; Kumva and Kwibuka Project. 

Kumva and Kwibuka (Listen and Remember) is a group of Rwandan Genocide Survivors and educators who have come together to run workshops in schools, with students and teachers as well as with community organisations. 

Carroll College Year 10 History students were fortunate to have been able to participate in a two-hour workshop facilitated by Dri Ari Lander, who has spent many years as an educational program director at the Sydney Jewish Museum, interviewing Holocaust Survivors and ensuring their amazing stories of survival and resilience are maintained for future generations. Dr Lander has also worked with Survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home and has documented their experiences. Year 10 students are currently learning about the Changing Rights and Freedoms of African American People as well as Australia's Indigenous peoples. We will then begin a depth study of the Holocaust next term, therefore this workshop was extremely beneficial in creating context for their studies. 

Year 11 and 12 Legal Studies students complete case studies on the Rwandan Genocide and the Human Rights abuses that occurred during this bloody conflict. They also learn about the United Nations and International Court of Criminal Justice so were very excited to participate in a workshop with Dr Lander as well Amadee Jean Paul Nizigama, a journalist, videographer, interpreter and co-founder of Kumva and Kwibuka, along with his wife, a Rwandan genocide survivor. Born in Burundi (next to Rwanda) he had grown up believing he was a Burundian Hutu, but later discovered that his Grandfather was a Tutsi refugee from Rwanda, escaping persecution. Amadee's early life was marked by forced relocation, ethnic violence and life as a refugee, where he met his wife Agnes, both survivors fleeing violence.

The students benefitted so much from hearing these personal stories interwoven with the political events that were occurring, putting their classroom learning into context and developing their understanding of the effects on the lives of those who lived through these events.

Linda Dwyer

HSIE Coordinator