Hotel Rwanda's Paul Rusesabagina, at DePauw April 25, Receives Courage of Conscience Award

March 14, 2005

March 14, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - "When I went through this, I never knew I was going to survive," Paul Rusesabagina said as he and his wife Tatiana accepted the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award in Massachusetts. "The only thing that was certain was that I was going to be killed. Each and every day is a day of bonus, and should be used for good," he added. Rusesabagina will bring his message of humanity and hope to DePauw University on April 25 when he delivers The Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture, "Hotel Rwanda: A Lesson Yet to Be Learned."

A story in the Boston Globe notes, "The Rusesabaginas were presented with [the award]... for their efforts to shelter more than 1,200 people fleeing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Converting the four-star luxury hotel he managed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali into a sanctuary, Paul Rusesabagina managed to save the lives of men, women, and children who faced almost certain death by the Interahamwe. The Interahamwe was the name for the militias-turned-death-squads that called on ordinary citizens to kill the Tutsi people they had lived alongside and with whom they had created families for decades. The movie, Hotel Rwanda, is based on the Rusesabaginas' experiences."

Read the entire article at the newspaper's Web site. Learn more about Paul Rusesabaginas' appearance at DePauw here.

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