Rescuers

During the last 20 years, countries around the world have been torn apart by ethnic, religious, and political violence. Shattered social relations, mutual distrust, unhealed wounds, and narratives of hatred and revenge devastate communities, leaving them vulnerable to future outbreaks of violence.

In each violent narrative, however, there are also remarkable stories of ordinary heroes who risk their lives to save members of targeted groups. These stories, unfortunately, are hidden in the rubble of violence and despair, at risk of being lost with the passage of time. The Rescuers Project is a peacebuilding program that supports healing and reconciliation in post-conflict countries by recording and highlighting the stories of those who resisted overwhelming prejudice and violence by reaching out to condemned groups. These rescuers are the emblems of hope.

Stories of rescue have been collected from Rwanda and an exhibit is currently being developed with the Gisozi Memorial Museum in Rwanda. The project is expanding to include stories from the Balkans, Cambodia, East Timor, Guatemala and the Holocaust. Video and audio interviews of survivors and rescuers from each of these regions are being gathered for research and for use in traveling exhibits, which also use photographs and other materials. A high school curriculum accompanies the exhibits, which will travel to each country where interviews occurred. Local facilitators from the Karuna Center will be trained to lead community conversations that encourage dialogue and social healing. A film about the project, narrated by Ben Affleck, is in production.

Mimi Lieber is partnering with PROOF to help create a play based on the lives of the rescuers. Proof will be performing the play in the Balkans with our partners Heartefact and the Youth Initiative for Peace. Along with the play, we will be creating theatre-based workshops centering on the concept of standing up.

A graphic novel entitled The Rescuers is scheduled for release in Fall 2011.