Stephanie Nyombayire: Introducing President Bill Clinton at the 2005 Campus Progress National Student Conference

Stephanie Nyombayire, Genocide Intervention Network Representative, is a Rwandan student at Swarthmore College who has worked tirelessly to help end the genocide in Darfur. She speaks from experience, having endured the trauma of losing dozens of family members in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

In 2005, Stephanie was asked to introduce President Bill Clinton at the Campus Progress National Student Confernece on behalf of GI-Net. Highlighting Clinton's apology for the world's inaction during the Rwandan genocide, Nyombayire encouraged the audience to "always follow our words with action."

Also in 2005, Stephanie traveled to Darfurian refugee camps in Chad after she was denied entry to Sudan. Her trip, along with fellow students from Georgetown and Boston Universities, was documented in the film "Translating Genocide," which premiered on MTV on March 12, 2006. Learn more about the film and view excerpts. [1]

In 2007, Stephanie was named one Glamour magazine's Top Ten College Women [2] for her work on Darfur. Stephanie was honored [3] by Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame for her role in founding the Genocide Intervention Network, and in 2008 was invited to speak on a Clinton Global Initiative panel [4] on student activism.

Below is a letter written by Stephanie to student activists earlier in 2005:

Eleven years ago, I lost one hundred of my family members. My grandparents were shot and many of my uncles and aunts were killed along with their children. In one hundred days, Hutu extremists armed with machetes any weapon they could find slaughtered half of the Tutsi population as the international community not only chose to stand by and watch but also pulled out all peacekeepers, leaving 400 unarmed men to stop a mass campaign of genocide. The images of countless dead bodies floating down rivers were only granted a few minutes of attention. Instead people chose to go back to their daily lives as thousands of Rwandans were abandoned to their fate. Despite the promise of “never again” proclaimed after the Holocaust, the world had turned its back on the Rwandans.

Today, as you read these lines, another genocide is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan. More than 400,000 innocent men, women and children have been victims of systematic killings and rape and three million have been displaced. In March 2005, I traveled to Chad with MTVu where 200,000 Darfurians have taken refuge. In one of the camps, I met one young girl whose story I will always remember. At 15 years old, she had seen both her parents getting killed before being raped by the Janjaweeds. She then had to walk for 50 days across the desert to reach safety in Chad. She was now living on her own in the refugee camps with no hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Her story is only one in millions.

We must refuse to let Darfur become another Rwanda. It is my hope that I can one day look into the eyes of the children I spoke to and show them that we have heard their voice and we did not stand by and watch their pain and sufferings. Take action today by becoming a member [4] of the permanent constituency against genocide. There is no more time for excuses. You must speak out.

Coverage of Stephanie Nyombayire

• “Telling the stories of Sudan’s horror [4],” Delaware County Times, March 20, 2005
• “Students take action to aid Sudan [4],” The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 11, 2005
• “Rwandan teen, excelling in U.S., now lobbies for Darfur aid [4],” Associated Press, June 14, 2005
• “Learning from the tragedy of the past [4],” The Dallas Morning News, July 2, 2005
• Transcript of Stephanie Nyombayire's introduction of former President Bill Clinton [5], Campus Progress National Student Conference, July 13, 2005
• “3 Students' Perspective on Tragedy of Darfur [6],” The New York Times, March 11, 2006
• “A student, 16, confronts the unthinkable [6],” The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 14, 2006
• “Glamour Hero: She lost 100 family members to genocide [7],” Glamour magazine, March 1, 2007
• “She’s battling genocide [8],” Glamour magazine, May 1, 2007
• “Rwandan Native Stephanie Nyombayire will not Sleep Until the World Wakes Up [9],” ObaaSema Magazine, April 15, 2007
• “Stephanie Nyombayire '08 Honored by Rwanda's First Lady [10],” Swarthmore College News
• “Building Peace on Campus and Beyond [11],” Clinton Global Initiative panel, March 15, 2008
• “Vanguard Peace Warrior [11],” Newsweek, April 20, 2008