Published January 6, 2008
By Steve Lyttle
The Charlotte Observer
A meeting with a famed leader of Rwanda and an opportunity to visit the African nation are highlights of this year's Echo Foundation Voices Against Indifference Initiative.
The Echo Foundation, a Charlotte-based organization founded in 1997 to promote social justice and tolerance, will bring Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana to Charlotte in early March for a series of discussions with students, teachers and community members.
Part of the visit March 3-6 will be the annual Student Dialogue, in which hundreds of students meet Rucyahana and are able to ask questions of him. That event will be March 4 at Charlotte Latin School.
Hundreds of student leaders from high schools across the region will gather Wednesday at Charlotte Latin for the annual Humanity's Day, to discuss Rucyahana's life and his efforts to help others.
Rucyahana returned to his native Rwanda in 1994, at the height of the persecution of that nation's Tutsi people. He led a number of missions to help victims of the genocide, even as members of his own family and many of his friends were killed.
Rucyahana eventually became bishop of the devastated Shyira Diocese in northwest Rwanda and led numerous efforts to help rebuild the business, health, education and religious systems of the region. His Sonrise School provides a home and education for some of the estimated 400,000 orphans in Rwanda.
Part of Echo's Voices Against Indifference initiative will include the annual travel and leadership initiative, offering students a chance to travel in July to Rwanda with the Echo Foundation. Students will examine the work being done in the eastern part of the country by Partners in Health, a Boston-based health care organization.
The initiative will include art, photography, essay and poetry contests. The essay and poetry contests will be in English and French.
In past years, the Echo Foundation has brought to Charlotte such guests as Elie Wiesel, Jeffrey Sachs, Harry Wu and Bernard Kouchner.
For information about the Voices Against Indifference initiative, the travel opportunity to Rwanda, or the contests, call 704-347-3844 or go to www.echofoundation.org.