April 2009 Archives

Jean Paul Samputu

Rwandan Musician and Peace Ambassador

 at

The Strafford Room

Memorial Union Building - UNH

7:30 pm

FREE and Open to the Public

"Forgiveness is the most powerful unpopular weapon against terrorism and atrocity."

- Jean Paul Samputu

Join UNH Stand in welcoming Jean Paul Samputu, a musician who survived the genocide in Rwanda.  A winner of the prestigious KORA Award ("African Grammy)in 2003, Samputu travels the world as a cultural ambassador for Rwanda, bringing to his audiences traditional African singing, dancing, and drumming, and a message of peace and reconciliation.

Special thanks to these generous sponsors: 

• Student Activity Fee
• The Center for International Education
• The Diversity Support Coalition
• The Political Science Department.

Hope and Remembering: Honoring and Healing, a four-part film and discussion series featuring Holocaust survivors, rescuers, and the history that affects us all, offers its final presentation on Thursday, April 30, at the Roth Center for Jewish Life. The series concludes with the screening of the personal documentary, Angels of Austria: The Church That Reached Out to Holocaust Survivors, accompanied by a discussion with its filmmaker, Judy C. Faust. This series is proudly sponsored by the Upper Valley Jewish Community - supporting education and life-long learning - and Dartmouth Hillel. The public is invited to attend.

Angels of Austria: The Church That Reached Out to Holocaust Survivors chronicles an Austrian church's attempts to reverse centuries of Anti-semitism in their hometown by inviting Jewish Holocaust survivors formerly of Wiener Neustadt to return for a Week of Reconciliation in 1995. Judy Faust accompanies her mother and together they embark on an emotional roller coaster ride of grief, compassion, and healing. Christians and Jews explore their painful pasts while creating historic milestones they hope will mark an era of friendship and understanding. But how will Judy's mother forgive the descendants of the Third Reich when she hasn't even forgiven herself for not saving her father?

The Coastal Journal of Maine remarks that, "The Q & A and discussion afterwards is as powerful as the movie!" Greg Bates of Common Courage Press states, "At a time when we can point to many bad choices human beings make, your project casts humanity in its best light."

Judy Faust, a former art teacher turned writer and videographer, founded What's Your Story, a business that connects history to family stories and the arts (www.connectyourstories.com). Angels...is her first movie presentation that is touring churches, synagogues, and schools. 

 Angels of Austria...is being presented on Thursday, April 30, at the Roth Center for Jewish Life, 5 Occom Ridge, Hanover, NH, beginning at 7 pm. Admission is free. For more information about this event, contact Carole Clarke at uvjc@valley.net or 603-646-0460.

Further information about the series sponsors is available at: 

• The Upper Valley Jewish Community www.uvjc.org
•  Dartmouth College Hillel www.dartmouth.edu/~hillel

Photos courtesy of Judy C. Faust:

• Upper left:   Trudy Faust with her aunt, Herta Gerstl, at the Week of Reconciliation, 1995
• Lower right:  Trudy Faust with her daughter, filmmaker Judith C. Faust

Homeopathic health care is the focus of this month's Opening Worlds Series presentation sponsored by Awareness UNlimited of Dover. Laurie Wheeler, DiHom, a homeopathic practitioner and personal development coach since 1995, will present information about homeopathic health care and the newly opened Wellness Within clinic specifically offering care for veterans. The Opening Worlds Series: Homeopathic Health Care, part of a monthly presentation and discussion series designed to help raise community awareness about social, political, religious, cultural, wellness, career, and other diversity issues, will be held on Tuesday, April 28, at The Picker Building in Dover. The public is cordially invited to attend this event.

According to Ms. Wheeler, homeopathy is a system of medicine which recognizes our uniqueness, as we are all individuals and we react in our own way to illness and stress. Using the time-honored principle that like can be cured with like, homeopathy has taken a wide range of natural substances and carefully recorded the symptoms these substances cause in healthy people. Matching these substances as closely as possible to the individual and the particular symptoms that they are experiencing encourages their own healing energy to return them to a state of health. The results are often remarkable, bringing about cures that are rapid, gentle, and permanent. To resolve physical and mental health issues, many people today are taking an active part in their healthcare. They are tired of conventional medicine's uncertainty, side-effects from medication, or surgery as the answer to their problems. Those seeking a more natural or complementary medicine have surfaced. Conventional medicine is now being replaced or enhanced with homeopathy - for a more permanent, deeper effect and holistic change.

At Wellness Within, a new healthcare clinic in Kittery, ME, Ms. Wheeler has gathered a team of professional practitioners who are volunteering their healthcare services, using homeopathy, to local veterans. This type of clinic is the first of its kind in the seacoast area. Ms. Wheeler and her colleagues are all fully trained, have their own professional practices, and believe it is time to give back to all veterans. Homeopathic practitioners have been concerned about the increased need for treatment that veterans are, and in many cases, are not receiving, especially as the amount of medications for PTSD rise. The team at Wellness Within believes now is the time to share what they firmly are convinced is a better health approach - one that is safe, gentle, and offers a cost-effective way to heal one's body, mind, and spirit.

Ms. Wheeler began her journey with homeopathy in 1992 when she and her family became very ill and found no relief through conventional medicine. She discovered homeopathy and was surprised by the incredible healing success it provided. This prompted her to learn as much as she could about it, begin training, and become a practitioner (www.homeopathy2.com ). Ms. Wheeler hosts a live radio program called Journey Into Wellness at Portsmouth Community Radio: WSCA 106.1FM. She and her colleagues are committed to raising the health and potential of all humankind.

The Opening Worlds Series: Homeopathic Health Care presentation takes place on Tuesday, April 28, from 7:30-9:30 pm in the Third Floor Conference Room, The Picker Building, 2 Washington St., Dover, NH. Admission is free. For further information, please contact Deb Barry, Awareness UNlimited Executive Director at: deb@awareness-unlimited.com or 603-520-2933.