Quotes from Clemantine Wamariya

Like many American millennials, an 8th grade field trip first brought me into contact with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

You have this one life. If you keep being selfish and unkind, it's going to come back to you.

Sharing is wonderful, but giving - I give, you take - often maintains the power status quo.

I think, when you survive any intense experience, people try to moralize you; a lot of people just try to raise you high, and it's so not fair to you and to everybody else.

My experiences have shown me that when an opportunity bigger than you comes along and you feel unprepared and doubtful, it is important to permit those emotions and let that energy drive you and inspire you to move forward.

Always strive to be a better you for you and for other.

There are millions of people, refugees, who have experienced the same conflicts and struggles I did. They have the same potential to defy the odds and achieve great things.

My day-to-day varies. I do some public speaking. I talk to school groups.

The benefits of Umuganda are not merely economic. The day is intended to build community involvement and strengthen cohesion between persons of different background and levels. One such a benefit is that people can access authorities to articulate their needs and voice opinions on various issues.

I want to listen to people's stories and find strength in them. There is so much human-caused pain and suffering in the world. I want to honor all those difficult experiences and acknowledge their aftermath. At the same time, I want to really see and love the world around me.

We need to examine hatred on a global perspective because hatred is everywhere, and it does not matter who you are: you can be a victim of it anywhere and anytime.

The idea of somebody suffering is really painful to every human. In our collective language, we all too often see those who are suffering as a victim to be pitied, to be feared, and even sometimes to be despised. I want to redirect that narrative.

I'm not a victim - I'm a survivor of hunger, of hate, of different injustices that humans are facing today.

I want to create or be a platform for people who have been labelled as a victim. I'm not going to be their voice; that's their voice. I want to allow people to voice their life beyond labels.

I don't think in a linear form.