Washington, U.S.A.  – A new poll commissioned by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum finds that 67 years after the Holocaust, Americans believe genocide is still very possible, yet preventable, and they would like to see the US government play a major role in stopping it from happening around the world.

Americans expressed support for a range of strategies for preventing genocide, especially education about the Holocaust and other past atrocities. They are supportive of military action in cases like Syria and Sudan but they want the US to work in concert with other nations, according to the new telephone survey of 1000 people, conducted by Penn Schoen Berland between June 30 and July 10, 2012.

The poll was released in conjunction with the symposium “Imagine the Unimaginable: Ending Genocide in the 21st Century” held at the Museum, which featured a keynote address by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Presented in cooperation with the Council on Foreign Relations and CNN, the symposium examined the challenges of preventing genocide in years to come, and the opportunities and risks posed by new technologies, demographic changes and other trends.  Results of the poll helped guide the discussion during two panels that featured leading foreign policy experts, authors, academics and business leaders including Chairman of the US National Intelligence Council Christopher Kojm, Peter Schwartz,Timothy Snyder, Sarah Sewall, Arwa Damon, Richard Williamson and Strive Masiyiwa. The panels were moderated by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and Washington Post investigative reporter Dana Priest.

“Sixty seven years after the Holocaust, after which the world vowed ‘Never Again,’ it is unacceptable that genocide persists,” said Museum Chairman Tom Bernstein. “We are heartened by the results of this poll which show that the American people understand the danger that genocide still poses today, and that they believe that the US should be a leader in helping to prevent it, working together with other countries and international organizations.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum hopes this poll, today’s symposium and our ongoing efforts will make a substantial contribution to understanding and preventing genocide and other mass atrocities in the future.”

“The results are striking in that they show a deep American concern for genocide and a strong desire for global action to face this threat,” said Mark Penn, former presidential pollster and CEO of Burson-Marsteller and Penn Schoen Berland.  “Americans believe they have a moral responsibility to prevent or stop genocide around the world, even if it means putting boots on the ground. But they view multilateral action as the most effective military strategy for prevention. They are well educated on the correct definition of genocide, especially young Americans, and believe education plays an important role in preventing this threat.”

The results of the poll are based on telephone interviews of 1,000 American respondents.  It has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.   The symposium and poll were made possible in part by a generous pro-bono contribution from Burson-Marsteller and Penn Schoen Berland.

Americans believe genocide is very possible but also preventable.

• 94% of Americans believe that genocide is still very much a concern and could occur today.
• 66% of Americans believe that it is preventable.

Americans believe the US government has a major role to play in stopping genocide.

• 69% think the US should prevent or stop genocide or mass atrocities from occurring in another part of the world.
• 78% support the US taking military action to stop genocide or mass atrocities.

Americans support a range of strategies for preventing genocide and are supportive of military action, but want the US to work in concert with other nations.

• 53% say multilateral action is the most effective military strategy, while only 10% say unilateral action by the U.S. is most effective.
• 76% believe that education about the history of genocide can help prevent future atrocities.
• Fewer than 1 in 10 Americans say the US is most responsible for preventing genocide; most believe international bodies or the countries involved in a conflict are more responsible.

Americans believe the international community is not effective at genocide prevention.

• 55% believe the international community is not effective at preventing civilians from genocide or mass atrocities.
• One in two Americans believes that the International Criminal Court is not effective at preventing genocide.

Imahe Courtesy of  shalunts / Shutterstock.com

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It’s well known that yoga has a lot of curative properties and has physically and mentally helped a lot of people since its origin. With this in mind, a non-profit organization called Project Air thought that maybe this alternative medicine would be a very beneficial discipline to help more than 400 HIV positive women that survived the widespread rape that occurred during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Due to its positive effects, what began with a temporary project four years ago, now is a basic activity that helps hundred of Rwanda women and their families in the city of Kigali every day.

Yoga instructor and author Deirdre Summerbell still remembers the faces of skepticism and confusion that women had at their first yoga lesson.  However, as she said to the Huffington Post, the positive results were huge and immediate.

“After the third lesson, a shy woman came up to me, took my hands and said that she had slept for the first time in the 14 years since the genocide,” Summerbell said. “She wasn’t alone. Women will tell you that before yoga, they were crippled with aches and pains; they felt old. Now they crave yoga because when they feel physically stronger, they feel more confident and optimistic.”

In 1994 an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days, and hundreds of women were raped, as the Hutu majority tribe tried to eliminate the Tutsi minority. Since then their minds were full of war and terrible memories, that made them feel older than they actually were and without any life hope.

As Summerbell said to the Huffington Post, at the end of her first class a 28-year old Rwandan woman told her that yoga was for younger people not for them. Regarding this issue Summberbell said Project Air yoga classes have allowed women who have felt stiff and elderly to experience dramatic and immediate emotional benefits, as they jump and play joyfully during the class.

According to the outlet media, when the non-profit Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment told Summerbell about the project in 2007 she didn´t believe in it.

“I thought that it was silly and the last thing these women would probably need,” Summerbell said.

Their battlefield traumas, different culture and the fact that this type of physical activity is taboo in Rwanda, created obstacles to reaching great success from the very beginning. As Summerbell said, she saw her students’ symptoms, including disrupted sleep patterns and poor appetites, improve.

Despite the fact that not all the HIV cases were a consequence of the genocide in 2004, Amnesty International reported that that conflict contributed notably to the spread of the disease.  As this non-profit organization estimated more than 67 percent of the victims contracted HIV and AIDS at that time.

The U.K. based Survivors Fund reported that many of the infections were planned, and that HIV positive men were used deliberately as a weapon of the genocide.According to a study by the Rwandan Ministry of Health, around one out of three Rwandans suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the genocide.

Project Air started at 2004 as one aspect of the holistic treatment offered by the non-profit organization called WE-ACTx, with the intention of amending the physical symptoms of HIV and AIDS disease and the PTSD.  With the same purpose WE-ACTx integrates the mental health.

”Many of the women who have also attended [Project Air] yoga sessions say that the support they get from doing this with other women as well as the strength they gain from the physical exercise of the manipulation of yoga allow them to feel like they are able to move on and move forward from their PTSD,”  said Dr. Mardge Cohen, the medical director of WE-ACTx

So far this is the first yoga initiative certified by the United Nations and is the only yoga project to be partnered with UNICEF. The organizers’ main goal is to expand the yoga program to other warring and post-conflict countries.

“The lucky ones eat every day, the unlucky every other day, and you can’t ask people with a low caloric intake to do yoga. So we feed them,” Summerbell said. “They couldn’t afford underwear, so we quickly regrouped and provided trousers.”

Project Air does not participate with only the yoga program. Since Rwanda is a very expensive country, coupled with a high poverty level, Project Air also feed people and provides them with clothing.

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