Rwandan genocide survivor discusses faith in action
This Center Stage event, presented by TTU’s Commission on the Status of Women, is free and open to the public. The event, one of a series of events on campus during National Women’s History Month, is at 7 p.m. in the Derryberry Hall Auditorium.
Ilibagiza’s books, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust and Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, detail her survival of the Rwandan genocide. In them, she discusses the political and social factors that led to the genocide, how she struggled to stay alive, and her life today. She also shares what led her to forgive her tormenters and those who killed her family.
Trained as an electrical engineer, her life changed forever in 1994 when political instability sparked ethnic tensions leading to the slaughter of Tutsis by Hutu militia. Ilibagiza and seven other Tutsi women hid in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s house for 91 days while nearly 1 million people, including most of her family, were killed. When she entered the bathroom, she was a healthy 115-pound university student. She emerged weighing just 65 pounds to discover most of her family had been murdered.
Ilibagiza spent her time in hiding teaching herself English using the Bible and a dictionary. Once freed, she obtained a job with the United Nations. She emigrated to the United States four years after the genocide and continued working for the United Nations. Through establishment of the Left To Tell Charitable Fund, she continues to support personal and educational needs of Rwandan orphans.
“Ms. Ilibagiza’s insights are valuable for our students at Tech not because she experienced a horrific historical event, but because she also talks about how she made her experiences meaningful after the genocide,” said Rita Barnes, chair of the TTU Commission on the Status of Women and director of The Honors Program. “How does any human being change their own life when an unthinkable event occurs? The fact that Ms. Ilibagiza was studying to become an engineer, like so many of our students, brought her message especially close to home for me when I read Left To Tell.”
Visit the Women's Center web site for more information about this event.
