Penn State Altoona students Molly Leverknight and Haylee Passmore seem to have developed a bit of a crush on their homework assignment.
After hearing Justin Semahoro Kimenyerwa laugh and sing with his roommates over the phone during a recent event for Save Darfur: Central Pennsylvania members, it is not hard to understand why.
The Banyamulenge Tribe member, who came to the United States in 2008, went from being a subject in a human and family development class assignment for the two young women to being an inspiration in their lives.
Leverknight is now trying to bring Kimenyerwa, 26, from his home in St. Louis, Mo., to Penn State Altoona so other students can hear his inspiring story.
"We [she and Passmore] both fell in love with Sasha and Justin," Leverknight said.
Sasha Chanoff is the founder of Mapendo International, an organization dedicated to helping refugees who fall through the nonprofit cracks. The group helped Kimenyerwa get to America and is now working on bringing 29 of his family members to the United States, Kimenyerwa said.
Seven members of the Banyamulenge community live in St. Louis; more than 1,000 live in the United States, Kimenyerwa said.
Inside the Hawthorn Building on campus, Leverknight and Passmore told Kimenyerwa's story and then called him on speaker phone.
In 1996, Kimenyerwa, then 13, fled from an attack on his village in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He has not seen his family since.
Kimenyerwa, who speaks seven languages, is a translator for a Missouri hospital.
He came to America in 2008 after Mapendo International (www.mapendo.org) stepped in to help.
Celebrities Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Anderson Cooper and Angelina Jolie are spokespeople for the organization helping the Congolese, Darfurians, Sudanese and Somali Bantus.
"This is exactly why I think it's so incredibly important to connect people in central Pennsylvania with refugees in the U.S. who are survivors of atrocities such as genocide," Penn State Altoona professor Lee Ann De Reus said in an e-mail. "Knowing Justin humanizes the Banyamulenge people and gives us a personal connection to a group who is suffering persecution. Once we see the humanity in another person, we care about their well-being. It's this sort of empathy that will make the world a better place."
Leverknight found a calling to activism and a desire to make a difference through the project, she said. She is working with De Reus to bring Kimenyerwa to speak on campus and find any Banyamulenge living in Pennsylvania.
"I learned so much about something I never knew existed," Passmore said. "It was a great experience."
