Carl Hobert (F '93), the founder and executive director of the Axis of Hope, spoke last night in Braker Hall about the need for preventative diplomacy in conflict resolution.
Founded in 2002, Axis for Hope is a nonprofit organization dedicated to relaying this message to educators and children across the globe.
"What I am trying to teach youth is almost body-building in terms of conflict management," Hobert said, "Why not start early putting children in touch with people in order to discuss conflict resolution?"
Last night, Hobert spoke about Rwanda, where a genocide in 1994 left 800,000 to 1 million people dead and a significant portion of the population HIV-positive.
"They were raped and raped and raped ... and you know what happened? A lot of those soldiers had AIDS. It is what they called the low bullet."
Hobert's vision is to teach children to prevent potential conflicts before they even occur.
He showed a clip from the HBO film "Sometimes in April" that featured then-President Bill Clinton commenting on the Rwandan genocide.
"It is important that the world know that these killings were not spontaneous or accidental," Clinton said. "It is not an African phenomenon and must never be viewed as such. ... We must have global vigilance. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence."
Hobert and four students from the Boston area traveled to Rwanda this past summer where they worked with orphaned children.
"Once you smell it, you live it, you breathe it, you come back a totally changed person," he said. He plans to go back next summer with even more students "so that Americans and Rwandans can work together."
Hobert was optimistic about Rwandan President Paul Kagame, noting that the politician aims to promote education in the country. He also said that they both want to further the Rwandan-American exchange.
"Why not have students from Rwanda come here to the United States to study at good high schools and then good colleges?" Hobert said.
As such, he is trying to bring Kagame to speak at Tufts, Harvard and MIT in return for increased opportunities for Rwandans to study at these schools.
Hobert, a graduate of the Fletcher School at Tufts, became interested in conflict resolution at a young age when was exposed to conflicts on buses in the Minneapolis area. He hopes that some Tufts students will share his goals.
"I hope that people like you continue to go and work with kids, because they are our future," Hobert said.
He wants to spread "a vision and a plan so as a team we can make this happen in the Middle East, in North Korea, in Rwanda, in Louisiana and even right here in our backyard."
The speech was sponsored by PANGEA's Refugee and Internally Displaced People Committee.
