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EXCERPT: 'AWARENESS'
ABC News
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id= 6292705&page=1
Nov 20 2008
RSS Designer Kenneth Cole has edited a book on global issues, including
poverty, genocide and climate change. "Awareness: Inspiring Stories
About How to Make a Difference" is a collection of 86 stories and
conversations by 90 individuals who were inspired to do their part
to bring about social change.
The designer's new book profiles people who are making the world a
better place.
Chris Gardner On Giving + Getting Second Chances
Chris Gardner
Chris Gardner's struggle to overcome homelessness was the subject of
the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness, based on his memoir by the
same name. Now the owner and CEO of Christopher Gardner International
Holdings and a highly successful stockbroker and entrepreneur, he is
also a committed philanthropist and speaker, working with a number of
organizations to help the homeless, including Glide Memorial Church
and CARA, among others. glide.org; thecaraprogram.org.
I am living proof that a few small decisions, mixed with some bad
luck and bad timing, can mean the difference between having a home to
sleep in at night and being homeless. In the early 1980s I was a single
parent caring for my son, Chris, Jr., in San Francisco. I was employed,
working hard, and doing all I could to care for my child, but like so
many people I slipped through the cracks. We lost our rental apartment
and my son and I had no choice but to sleep in the park or sometimes a
locked public bathroom. Then I learned about Glide Memorial Church and
Reverend Cecil Williams, who runs its shelter, kitchen, health-care
services, job training center, and other resources for the poor and
disenfranchised. He saved our lives. I know for sure there wouldn't
be a Chris Gardner today if there wasn't a Reverend Williams back
then. Glide is truly an oasis in a desert of hopelessness, a place
where old, destructive ways are thrown out and new ones created.
They serve over a million meals a year and provide the services that
get people back on their feet.
I live in Chicago now, where I work with the CARA program, which
assists the homeless and at-risk populations with comprehensive
job training and placement. I believe in CARA's philosophy of second
chances and helping people who are trying to help themselves by giving
them the necessary tools and skills. In fact, one of my most trusted
employees is a graduate of CARA.
I never could have imagined that telling my story in the book and
movie The Pursuit of Happyness would help others. I am humbled
that people all over the world write to tell me that I've given
them hope. And I'm proud to have put a face on homelessness--and
it's not the face of a drug addict or a convict. It's the face of a
workingman who lost everything except the will to survive, succeed,
and make a better life for his children. It is estimated that twelve
percent of the homeless population in the United States is employed;
in some communities that estimate is as high as 30 percent. There is
often a fine line between getting by and not having anything.
While it's important to make donations to reputable organizations like
Glide, CARA, and others I support such as HELP USA, Covenant House, and
Common Ground, I try to give my time and reach out to others so they
become involved too. I do everything from speaking at events for Glide,
attending counseling sessions, and donating clothes and shoes. A little
goes a long way with people who have nothing. When I'm traveling, I try
to see if I can make contact with a local church or shelter. I know
that sometimes just shaking a man's hand or hugging a child, telling
them that they will make it, is the push they need to get through
the day. It doesn't cost a dime or take any time to acknowledge them
and make them feel human. I try to give back however I can, because
I was fortunate enough to receive help when I desperately needed it.
Fact Today Chris Gardner is involved with homelessness initiatives
assisting families to stay intact, and assisting homeless men and
women who are employed but still can't get by. He helped fund a $50
million project that created low-income housing and opportunities for
employment in the notoriously poor Tenderloin area of San Francisco,
where he was once homeless.
Jacqueline Murekatete On Genocide Prevention
A survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide, Jacqueline Murekatete
is the founder and director of Jacqueline's Human Rights Corner,
a genocide-prevention education program under the umbrella
of Miracle Corners of the World, a New York-based nonprofit
organization. miraclecorners.org/programs_partner_jacqueline
Wh at does a young girl do when her innocence is taken away, her whole
world is changed, and she finds herself in an environment in which she
is told that she is no longer a human being, a child, but an enemy
of the state, a cockroach needing to be exterminated? What does a
young girl do when her childhood is shattered, her parents, siblings,
uncles, aunts, friends murdered by their neighbors, and she finds
herself in an environment in which more than a million innocent men,
women, and children are murdered simply because of their ethnicity?
When I was just nine years old, in 1994, the Tutsi genocide in my
country exposed me to horrors that no child or adult should ever
have to see. During the approximately 100 days of Tutsi massacres,
I was forced to watch as men, women, and children were dragged down
the streets on their way to be murdered, to listen to the screams
of toddlers and infants whose arms or legs had been hacked off with
machetes, and to get up not knowing whether I would live to see the
next day. The genocide in my country exposed me firsthand to the worst
of man's inhumanity toward man, and the worst human-rights violation
that there is--the violation of every man's basic right to exist. My
life would never be the same again.
The period after the genocide was a very difficult one, as I struggled
to understand what had happened in my country. I spent many days crying
for the parents, six siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends whom
I would never see again, and at night I was haunted by nightmares. For
six years after the genocide I found no words to express the horrors
that had occurred in my country, and I was unable to talk about how
my family had died. After arriving in the United States at the end of
1995, I kept to myself, and spoke very vaguely about my previous life
in Rwanda to my new classmates and friends. The turning point for me,
the moment when I made the transition from victim to activist, came
at the beginning of high school. I began learning about the Holocaust
and how other countries had gone through genocides. I was struck by
the similarities between these genocides and the one in my country,
and I was appalled to learn that the silence and indifference displayed
by the international community as my people were being massacred was
the same type of silence and indifference that had been the response
to other genocides, before Rwanda.
After I learned about the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the
Cambodian genocide, and the Bosnian genocide, it became clear to me
that what had happened in Rwanda in 1994 was not unique to Rwanda,
that genocide had happened before and could happen anywhere. I realized
it was a cycle that would continue to repeat itself for as long as
we permitted it by our silence, indifference, and lack of actions to
prevent it. Genocide can be prevented, but it requires the collective
effort of all human beings around the world.
And so, in 2001, after listening to the experiences of David
Gewirtzman, a Holocaust survivor who has since become a good friend
and mentor to me, I made the decision to create awareness about the
genocide in my country. I knew that sharing my experience and speaking
out would not be easy, but that it was work that had to be done.
One important thing that people often fail to realize about the work
of genocide prevention and human rights is that while we are often
overwhelmed by the number and variety of human-rights violations around
the world, and while we often feel paralyzed by the enormity of it all,
all it takes to end major violations and to have a positive impact
on the world is the hard work, determination, and efforts of ordinary
individuals who use ordinary resources like their voices and time.
When I began my activism in genocide prevention and human rights, I
did not know that I, a girl of sixteen, could make a difference. But
as a result of the more than 300 presentations I have delivered
in the past seven years, my genocide-prevention education work has
been embraced by hundreds of U.S.-based schools, universities, and
faith-based communities, and by diverse groups of people all over the
world. As a result of my decision to make a positive impact on the
world, others have followed my lead, investing their resources in my
work and joining me to educate people, young people in particular,
as to how to transform hate and achieve personal goals in ways that
foster peaceful coexistence among all human beings. My team has
grown to include students, global leaders, entertainers, educators,
and noteworthy Holocaust/genocide scholars and human-rights activists
worldwide.
There is no doubt that many significant improvements have been made in
genocide prevention. More than ever before, human beings are realizing
how interdependent we are and are finally waking up to the fact that
a more peaceful world can be achieved only through the collective
efforts of individuals. And whether change is institutional, such
as the creation of the UN's Office of the Special Advisor on the
Prevention of Genocide or of an international-relations concept
like the Responsibility to Protect (both of which were conceived in
an effort to determine the best way to intervene and deliver aid to
people in grave conflicts around the world), or change is effected by
the involvement of young people in student anti-genocide organizations
and clubs like STAND or the Genocide Intervention Network, I and
other human-rights activists know that progress is being made, that
our time and daily efforts are not being wasted.
Unfortunately, with hate crimes continuing to take place in the United
States, child soldiering and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda
and Congo, and religiously and ethnically motivated violence in the
Middle East and the Balkans, we also know that our work is anything
but done. Even in the twenty-first century, genocide or the intent
of governments to commit genocide remains a reality that we cannot
afford to ignore, as the current situation in Darfur illustrates. The
work of genocide-prevention education is more necessary than ever.
I remain optimistic that a world without genocide is possible. Genocide
is not a crime that arises in a vacuum or happens overnight, as I
often tell my audiences. There are warnings, and thus there are always
opportunities for us to intervene, by fighting the conditions that
allow genocide to take place. Before being systematically murdered,
a group is usually victimized by state-sanctioned discrimination,
prejudice, dehumanization, and individual murders, with impunity
for the murderers. This was the case for Rwandan Tutsis before the
genocide in 1994, as it was the case for the Jewish people before
the Holocaust and for other victims of genocide before Rwanda.
Therefore, in seeking to create a world without genocide, we must look
out for these conditions, these warnings, in our own countries and in
the world at large. We must speak out against these injustices whenever
and wherever we identify them, and every day each and every one of us
must work to create more equitable, democratic, and tolerant societies
around the world. Only by doing this can we really hope to transform
the "never again" said after the Holocaust from promise into practice,
from hope into reality.
GET INVOLVED There exist numerous things that each of us can do to
help advance the work of genocide prevention and human rights. As an
individual and a citizen of any country, make a daily effort to be
aware of the various injustices and major human rights violations that
go on in our world. Be aware of the precedents of genocide, such as
state-sanctioned discrimination, dehumanization of certain groups of
people, racism, anti-Semitism, and hate, among other precedents. And,
aware of these injustices, make an effort to mobilize others and begin
a collective effort to fight these things, whether in your school,
community, or in a distant country.
MODERN DAY GENOCIDES Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) caused 1.5 million
deaths.
The Holocaust (1933-1945) caused the deaths of an estimated 6
million Jews, at least 1.5 million non-Jewish Polish citizens, 200,000
individuals with mental or physical disabilities, approximately 10,000
homosexuals, and 20,000 Roma or Gypsies.
Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979) The Khmer Rouge killed approximately
2 million people.
The Rwandan Genocide (April-July 1994) caused more than 1 million
deaths.
The Darfur Conflict (2003-present) has caused an estimated 400,000
deaths to date.
The Srebrenica Massacre (July 1995) Serbian forces killed an estimated
8,000 Muslims in Bosnia.
ABC News
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id= 6292705&page=1
Nov 20 2008
RSS Designer Kenneth Cole has edited a book on global issues, including
poverty, genocide and climate change. "Awareness: Inspiring Stories
About How to Make a Difference" is a collection of 86 stories and
conversations by 90 individuals who were inspired to do their part
to bring about social change.
The designer's new book profiles people who are making the world a
better place.
Chris Gardner On Giving + Getting Second Chances
Chris Gardner
Chris Gardner's struggle to overcome homelessness was the subject of
the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness, based on his memoir by the
same name. Now the owner and CEO of Christopher Gardner International
Holdings and a highly successful stockbroker and entrepreneur, he is
also a committed philanthropist and speaker, working with a number of
organizations to help the homeless, including Glide Memorial Church
and CARA, among others. glide.org; thecaraprogram.org.
I am living proof that a few small decisions, mixed with some bad
luck and bad timing, can mean the difference between having a home to
sleep in at night and being homeless. In the early 1980s I was a single
parent caring for my son, Chris, Jr., in San Francisco. I was employed,
working hard, and doing all I could to care for my child, but like so
many people I slipped through the cracks. We lost our rental apartment
and my son and I had no choice but to sleep in the park or sometimes a
locked public bathroom. Then I learned about Glide Memorial Church and
Reverend Cecil Williams, who runs its shelter, kitchen, health-care
services, job training center, and other resources for the poor and
disenfranchised. He saved our lives. I know for sure there wouldn't
be a Chris Gardner today if there wasn't a Reverend Williams back
then. Glide is truly an oasis in a desert of hopelessness, a place
where old, destructive ways are thrown out and new ones created.
They serve over a million meals a year and provide the services that
get people back on their feet.
I live in Chicago now, where I work with the CARA program, which
assists the homeless and at-risk populations with comprehensive
job training and placement. I believe in CARA's philosophy of second
chances and helping people who are trying to help themselves by giving
them the necessary tools and skills. In fact, one of my most trusted
employees is a graduate of CARA.
I never could have imagined that telling my story in the book and
movie The Pursuit of Happyness would help others. I am humbled
that people all over the world write to tell me that I've given
them hope. And I'm proud to have put a face on homelessness--and
it's not the face of a drug addict or a convict. It's the face of a
workingman who lost everything except the will to survive, succeed,
and make a better life for his children. It is estimated that twelve
percent of the homeless population in the United States is employed;
in some communities that estimate is as high as 30 percent. There is
often a fine line between getting by and not having anything.
While it's important to make donations to reputable organizations like
Glide, CARA, and others I support such as HELP USA, Covenant House, and
Common Ground, I try to give my time and reach out to others so they
become involved too. I do everything from speaking at events for Glide,
attending counseling sessions, and donating clothes and shoes. A little
goes a long way with people who have nothing. When I'm traveling, I try
to see if I can make contact with a local church or shelter. I know
that sometimes just shaking a man's hand or hugging a child, telling
them that they will make it, is the push they need to get through
the day. It doesn't cost a dime or take any time to acknowledge them
and make them feel human. I try to give back however I can, because
I was fortunate enough to receive help when I desperately needed it.
Fact Today Chris Gardner is involved with homelessness initiatives
assisting families to stay intact, and assisting homeless men and
women who are employed but still can't get by. He helped fund a $50
million project that created low-income housing and opportunities for
employment in the notoriously poor Tenderloin area of San Francisco,
where he was once homeless.
Jacqueline Murekatete On Genocide Prevention
A survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide, Jacqueline Murekatete
is the founder and director of Jacqueline's Human Rights Corner,
a genocide-prevention education program under the umbrella
of Miracle Corners of the World, a New York-based nonprofit
organization. miraclecorners.org/programs_partner_jacqueline
Wh at does a young girl do when her innocence is taken away, her whole
world is changed, and she finds herself in an environment in which she
is told that she is no longer a human being, a child, but an enemy
of the state, a cockroach needing to be exterminated? What does a
young girl do when her childhood is shattered, her parents, siblings,
uncles, aunts, friends murdered by their neighbors, and she finds
herself in an environment in which more than a million innocent men,
women, and children are murdered simply because of their ethnicity?
When I was just nine years old, in 1994, the Tutsi genocide in my
country exposed me to horrors that no child or adult should ever
have to see. During the approximately 100 days of Tutsi massacres,
I was forced to watch as men, women, and children were dragged down
the streets on their way to be murdered, to listen to the screams
of toddlers and infants whose arms or legs had been hacked off with
machetes, and to get up not knowing whether I would live to see the
next day. The genocide in my country exposed me firsthand to the worst
of man's inhumanity toward man, and the worst human-rights violation
that there is--the violation of every man's basic right to exist. My
life would never be the same again.
The period after the genocide was a very difficult one, as I struggled
to understand what had happened in my country. I spent many days crying
for the parents, six siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends whom
I would never see again, and at night I was haunted by nightmares. For
six years after the genocide I found no words to express the horrors
that had occurred in my country, and I was unable to talk about how
my family had died. After arriving in the United States at the end of
1995, I kept to myself, and spoke very vaguely about my previous life
in Rwanda to my new classmates and friends. The turning point for me,
the moment when I made the transition from victim to activist, came
at the beginning of high school. I began learning about the Holocaust
and how other countries had gone through genocides. I was struck by
the similarities between these genocides and the one in my country,
and I was appalled to learn that the silence and indifference displayed
by the international community as my people were being massacred was
the same type of silence and indifference that had been the response
to other genocides, before Rwanda.
After I learned about the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the
Cambodian genocide, and the Bosnian genocide, it became clear to me
that what had happened in Rwanda in 1994 was not unique to Rwanda,
that genocide had happened before and could happen anywhere. I realized
it was a cycle that would continue to repeat itself for as long as
we permitted it by our silence, indifference, and lack of actions to
prevent it. Genocide can be prevented, but it requires the collective
effort of all human beings around the world.
And so, in 2001, after listening to the experiences of David
Gewirtzman, a Holocaust survivor who has since become a good friend
and mentor to me, I made the decision to create awareness about the
genocide in my country. I knew that sharing my experience and speaking
out would not be easy, but that it was work that had to be done.
One important thing that people often fail to realize about the work
of genocide prevention and human rights is that while we are often
overwhelmed by the number and variety of human-rights violations around
the world, and while we often feel paralyzed by the enormity of it all,
all it takes to end major violations and to have a positive impact
on the world is the hard work, determination, and efforts of ordinary
individuals who use ordinary resources like their voices and time.
When I began my activism in genocide prevention and human rights, I
did not know that I, a girl of sixteen, could make a difference. But
as a result of the more than 300 presentations I have delivered
in the past seven years, my genocide-prevention education work has
been embraced by hundreds of U.S.-based schools, universities, and
faith-based communities, and by diverse groups of people all over the
world. As a result of my decision to make a positive impact on the
world, others have followed my lead, investing their resources in my
work and joining me to educate people, young people in particular,
as to how to transform hate and achieve personal goals in ways that
foster peaceful coexistence among all human beings. My team has
grown to include students, global leaders, entertainers, educators,
and noteworthy Holocaust/genocide scholars and human-rights activists
worldwide.
There is no doubt that many significant improvements have been made in
genocide prevention. More than ever before, human beings are realizing
how interdependent we are and are finally waking up to the fact that
a more peaceful world can be achieved only through the collective
efforts of individuals. And whether change is institutional, such
as the creation of the UN's Office of the Special Advisor on the
Prevention of Genocide or of an international-relations concept
like the Responsibility to Protect (both of which were conceived in
an effort to determine the best way to intervene and deliver aid to
people in grave conflicts around the world), or change is effected by
the involvement of young people in student anti-genocide organizations
and clubs like STAND or the Genocide Intervention Network, I and
other human-rights activists know that progress is being made, that
our time and daily efforts are not being wasted.
Unfortunately, with hate crimes continuing to take place in the United
States, child soldiering and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda
and Congo, and religiously and ethnically motivated violence in the
Middle East and the Balkans, we also know that our work is anything
but done. Even in the twenty-first century, genocide or the intent
of governments to commit genocide remains a reality that we cannot
afford to ignore, as the current situation in Darfur illustrates. The
work of genocide-prevention education is more necessary than ever.
I remain optimistic that a world without genocide is possible. Genocide
is not a crime that arises in a vacuum or happens overnight, as I
often tell my audiences. There are warnings, and thus there are always
opportunities for us to intervene, by fighting the conditions that
allow genocide to take place. Before being systematically murdered,
a group is usually victimized by state-sanctioned discrimination,
prejudice, dehumanization, and individual murders, with impunity
for the murderers. This was the case for Rwandan Tutsis before the
genocide in 1994, as it was the case for the Jewish people before
the Holocaust and for other victims of genocide before Rwanda.
Therefore, in seeking to create a world without genocide, we must look
out for these conditions, these warnings, in our own countries and in
the world at large. We must speak out against these injustices whenever
and wherever we identify them, and every day each and every one of us
must work to create more equitable, democratic, and tolerant societies
around the world. Only by doing this can we really hope to transform
the "never again" said after the Holocaust from promise into practice,
from hope into reality.
GET INVOLVED There exist numerous things that each of us can do to
help advance the work of genocide prevention and human rights. As an
individual and a citizen of any country, make a daily effort to be
aware of the various injustices and major human rights violations that
go on in our world. Be aware of the precedents of genocide, such as
state-sanctioned discrimination, dehumanization of certain groups of
people, racism, anti-Semitism, and hate, among other precedents. And,
aware of these injustices, make an effort to mobilize others and begin
a collective effort to fight these things, whether in your school,
community, or in a distant country.
MODERN DAY GENOCIDES Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) caused 1.5 million
deaths.
The Holocaust (1933-1945) caused the deaths of an estimated 6
million Jews, at least 1.5 million non-Jewish Polish citizens, 200,000
individuals with mental or physical disabilities, approximately 10,000
homosexuals, and 20,000 Roma or Gypsies.
Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979) The Khmer Rouge killed approximately
2 million people.
The Rwandan Genocide (April-July 1994) caused more than 1 million
deaths.
The Darfur Conflict (2003-present) has caused an estimated 400,000
deaths to date.
The Srebrenica Massacre (July 1995) Serbian forces killed an estimated
8,000 Muslims in Bosnia.