Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is the international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. It takes place on 27th January each year. The theme for HMD09 is Stand up to Hated and explores the expression for hatred in speech and propaganda; how hatred can be enshrined in legislation; the impact of hatred on those who are regarded as different; hate crimes in Britain today and what we can all do to stand up to hatred in our community.
Hate. We think we know it, but most of us will never face it. Hatred is a corrosive force, able to ruin lives, wreck co-operation, destroy communities, or races, or nations. It is present in small ways in daily life, but it is at its most lethal in prejudice, discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia.
In this lethal form it was the driving force in Nazi Germany, in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, in Rwanda in 1994 where an estimated 1,000,000 Tutsis population were killed in just 100 days in the most intense period of systematic killing in modern history, all this taking place whilst the outside world largely turned its back, in Bosnia and in other places at other times. And so it is in Darfur today.
The past is powerful; from it we can learn to protect ourselves and our communities from the forces of hatred.
Britain today is not Nazi Germany, nor Cambodia, nor Rwanda, nor Bosnia at the time of genocide. But the evils of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance are still with us. We categorise, stereotype. Discriminate, exclude, bully, persecute, attack - because of race, religion, disability. We damage, and are damaged, as a result of our refusal to accept our common humanity.
Acts of hatred always involve making a choice. We choose to attack, to abuse, to exclude, to stand back and do nothing - or we choose to resist, to respect, to protect.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 (HMD09) challenges us all to Stand Up To Hatred.
It urges all of us:
- To look at our behaviour to others;
- To understand how hate is directed against different minorities in Britain today;
- To explore how each of us can help make our communities stronger and safer.
HMD09 is an opportunity to forge links across ALL diverse strands of local community lives, to build understanding and to unite in a common cause.
Hope Survivors Foundation (HSF) offers Rwandan survivors speakers who can share their testimonies about their experiences of facing hatred, discrimination and persecution. A number of Rwandan survivors will be speaking at satellite events around the country.
Bring a little smile to a face!
Hope Survivors Foundation is planning Flip Flop Shoebox Appeal this year to send Christmas packages to Rwanda. It is a fun way to help very poor children to experience a little joy in their lives.
Rwanda, a small country in central Africa is a developing nation. Many citizens live below the poverty line.
Around 360,000 people predominantly women and children, survived the genocide in Rwanda. The majority of these widows and orphans now live in desperate poverty and lack of proper shelter, education and the means to earn money to buy basic necessities such as medicine and food. Thousands of women and girls raped and infected with HIV in a deliberate campaign of the genocide. Many are dying because of lack of medication, general poverty, trauma and isolation. Many are running out of time, dying and leaving children orphaned for the second time.
Of all survivors, the neediest are children. Many are orphans who have been left with not adult figure to love or guide them. Children and orphans are left to fend themselves. They are forced to quit school, join the workforce, and care for younger brothers and sisters. Often they are caregivers, sometimes to more than ten siblings. Often they are involved in unskilled labour, which is underpaid and has no security or prospect for the future. Young girls in child headed households often drop out of school for domestic work. 260,000 children have been orphaned in Rwanda through HIV/AIDS.
In this regard, whatever outside help they could muster will be readily accepted. Anticipating your generous efforts this winter an orphan says, “Thanks in advance for this humanitarian gesture which will, no doubt, have far reaching impact on the well-being of the recipients.”
Shoeboxes can be filled with toys such as play dough, story books, shoes, clothes, school supplies etc. and should be nicely wrapped and clearly labelled with the appropriate age and sex. Please make sure ALL items are NEW! Please attach £2.00
Please do NOT include breakable items, food or sweets, toys that need batteries, medicines, or war-related items.
All boxes need to be received by Monday, 17 November. Boxes can be delivered to during business hours (Monday to Friday 9-5).
Please help to bring a little happiness in the lives of orphans/poor children of the Rwandan genocide! For more information, call our office on +44(0)7947951114. Even the smallest gift at the orphanage will be talked about for months, even remembered for years to come. What will YOU give?
Hope Survivors Foundation marked the 14th anniversary of the end of the Rwandan genocide on 19th July. The programme was launched with a special evening with Ben Rurabana and his group from France, a mark of solidarity for survivors to remember the loves ones lost, a place of reflection and learning for the wider UK community.
The event celebrated the diversity of our community through music, drama, presentations and testimonies.
This served as a launch pad for further events through the course of the year including a residential weekend seminar to explore the needs/support required by survivors, a visiting tour to the Holocaust centre, producing a CD of testimonies, putting in place collective social structures which offer group therapy.
Survivors were keen to mark the 14th anniversary of the end of the genocide, and to tell their stories in the hope that their individual plight is recorded and understood and to ensure that genocide is not repeated in any other country.
Having lost entire families in the genocide, survivors were keen to encourage initiatives which bring people together in a show of solidarity and empathy as this builds self esteem, helps to nurture new trust in the world, and leads to greater understanding between cultures.
Survivors are witnesses in the world to crimes against humanity. They have requested that HSF gives them the platform to make their voices heard.
HSF would like to convey our sincere appreciation and gratitude to everyone for taking time out of their busy schedule to attend our events.
We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and extent our deep thanks to the National Lottery and Amba Forwarding Company to have sponsored and made the events such a success.
Hope Survivors Foundation (HSF) in partnership with SURF (Survivors Fund) and HMD (Holocaust Memorial Day Trust) gathered at the Queens Crescent Community Centre to mark the 14th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. This special day of remembrance honoured the victims of the Rwandan genocide and ensured that the horrendous crimes committed during the genocide are neither forgotten nor repeated elsewhere in the world. Another purpose of the day was to restate the continuing need for vigilance in the light of the troubling repetition of human tragedies in the world today. There was also a focus on the needs/support of UK survivors. The event featured presentations from Rwandan survivors, Dr Martin Stern (Holocaust survivor), Alex Sklan (Director of clinical services from Medical Foundation for the care of victims of torture). A minute’s silence was observed in this memory with the lighting of 14 candles.
Hope Survivors Fund is pleased to be welcomed as a member of the Fundraising Standards Board self-regulation scheme. HSF is proud of our commitment to excellence and best practice as an charitable organisation.
As a member of the FRSB, we are licensed to use the scheme logo which is a demonstration of our commitment to best practice and accountability in fundraising. In late 2006, research carried out by YouGov plc and Which?, showed six in ten consumers said that they would be more likely to donate to a charity if they knew it was a member of the Fundraising Standards Board. So we can be assured that our organisation will benefit from public’s growing confidence in the scheme’s tick logo.
As part of our membership we will be able to access the member’s area of the website which includes downloadable versions of the scheme logo along with all the relevant member resources.
Hope Survivors Foundation, previously called IBUKA (UK), is pleased to announce the launch of its new website. The new website with an updated look from our old website gives greater focus to our work and our mission. Moreover, the new website has been built in such a way that we can update the website ourselves, allowing us to be more efficient in the administration of our website.
We would like to thank Liam Dempsey of lbdesign for donating his services to the design and production of this website.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Eleanor Roosevelt