Rahab Maina at The Mount. Photo: Photo courtesy of The Mount School.
Emotion without action is irrelevant
Helen Snelson describes a PeaceJam Slam at The Mount School
‘I don’t have material things, but I have ideas.’ Rahab Maina, a refugee from her homeland, spoke with great feeling about the impact of having had to leave everything, suddenly, in fear of her life. She left home with a small bag of possessions, not even family photos, and could not return.
Her ideas about common humanity and her passionate belief in human rights, which had brought her to this position, remain with her. Having worked in her local community for years against the abuse of women and girls, she did not stand by after Kenya’s 2008 election. Instead, she became a witness to the violence of her own tribe against others, was regarded as a traitor, subjected to death threats and lived in a safe house until she came to York University’s Centre for Applied Human Rights under their Human Rights Defenders programme. Now a refugee, she works to raise awareness of HIV/Aids in order to help prevention and reduce stigma. Rahab’s courage and strength have cost her dearly; she has not seen her daughters for years.
Rahab was keynote speaker at the ‘Let your life speak!’ PeaceJam Slam at The Mount School on Saturday 13 October. Students from several schools and youth groups across Yorkshire, including The Mount and Ackworth, are PeaceJammers. PeaceJam involves young people across the world working with Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in a Global Call to Action.
The Laureates have identified ten core problems that are at the root of much of the suffering in our world. They believe that young people can mobilise to make a difference in these areas. A PeaceJam Slam is where PeaceJammers come together to be educated, take action and be inspired to continue their work.
Having heard Rahab speak, the young people were full of perceptive questions. They then reflected creatively on her words, producing art work that Rahab found moving.
A key part of PeaceJam is about action. Jody Williams, one of the laureates, says to PeaceJammers that ‘emotion without action is irrelevant’. Rahab asked us to make red ribbons for HIV/Aids awareness day for her to take away to help her current work. It really was a case of ‘many hands make light work’. In a short space of time, with small production lines, we made hundreds of red ribbons that can be used this year.
Our day closed with a sharing of some of the developing action projects around the region. For example, students from Graham School in Scarborough have made progress with their Co-operative funded Global Call to Action project working with homeless people. Students from The Mount are researching in depth what action they can take in the face of the problems caused by the criminalisation of squatting and the effect of the housing benefit cap. Ackworth students are reinspired to counter ill-informed views about asylum-seekers.
We all reflected with silent and spoken ministry on the strength and courage required to ‘let your life speak.’ At The Mount School, we have pledged to support the York City of Sanctuary project by becoming a School of Sanctuary. The PeaceJam Ambassador’s programme is now part of the sixth form curriculum. We hope in the coming year that even more students will become involved with what archbishop Desmond Tutu describes as ‘the most powerful peace education programme in the world’.
