Hotel Rwanda

So, my co-teacher and I showed Hotel Rwanda. We started it yesterday and finished it today. It was a logical follow-up to a memorial research project the students had just completed-the unifying theme being various atrocities that have occurred around the world throughout history. It ties in with a units we do on World Wars I and II and the Holocaust.

So, yesterday, before class started, we discussed what follow-up assignment we should give after showing the film. He didn't want to just have them write another essay, I thought about having them write some sort of poem. But everything we brought up with one another fell flat.

Then, when we started the DVD, the star appeared onscreen with a PSA about Amnesty International. The lightbulb went off in my head and I whipped together an assignment in which the students would pick from various international organizations that feed, heal, protect, and/or defend victims of events like that depicted in Hotel Rwanda. My co-teacher and I agreed that it was perfect.

I should say that neither of us got around to seeing this movie before showing it-a risky approach for a teacher. You never know when some parent will find a reason to object to what is going on in your classroom.

It was good to see a good film for the first time with your students. Your response is more real and they can see that.

I was supposed to present the assignment when the film had finished, but this film. If you don't remember what happened in Rwanda, or if, like me, you only had a detached awareness at the time, you should see this film. When you think that our government was among those who did nothing-just as we did nothing in El Salvador-or do nothing now in Darfur-you feel helpless.

I don't often weep in class. But, I had to stop several times to do so.

The hope is that one person, like Paul in the film, can rise up and do what is right. It isn't the success, it's the doing.

Most of the organizations on my list were started by individuals, by the way, who saw something wrong and tried to fix it.

I provide, here, the list. Check a few of them out, if you want. Join one and get involved, if you want. Then, go strum your ukulele.

Heifer International: http://www.heifer.org/

Food for the Hungry: http://www.fh.org/

UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/

Voices of Youth: http://www.unicef.org/voy/speakout/speakout_564.html

Oxfam: http://www.oxfam.org/eng/

Catholic Relief Services: http://www.catholicrelief.org/

Lutheran World Relief: http://www.lwr.org/

Mercy Corps: http://www.mercycorps.org/home/

Water Aid: http://www.wateraid.org/

The Hunger Site: http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites

America’s Second Harvest: http://www.americassecondharvest.org/

Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org/

Control Arms: http://www.controlarms.org/

UN Commission on Human Rights: http://web.amnesty.org/pages/unchr-intro-eng

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers: http://www.child-soldiers.org/

Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy: http://www.codhes.org.co/

International Rescue Committee: http://www.theirc.org/

International Committee of the Red Cross: http://www.icrc.org/

International Crisis Group: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?

Iraq Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

International Association of Solidarity: http://www.andas.org.co/

Permanent Committee for Human Rights Defense: http://cpdh.free.fr/

Aegis Trust: http://www.aegistrust.org/

One: http://www.one.org/

DATA: http://www.data.org/

Doctors without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/