Diversity News

A Dominican nun who was born in Germany to a family who helped feed and shelter Jewish families in World War II, Radlmeier has worked in Africa since 1956. From her base in northern Kenya, Radlmeier helps refugees from throughout East Africa, focusing in particular on the lost generation of Sudanese youth. She has established dormitories for students, a home for AIDS orphans and HIV positive children, a clinic, two nursery schools, a primary school, and a modest hospital. She is especially committed to supporting the education of the children in her care. Her plan for the near future is to rescue 300 girls from a remote refugee camp where they daily face abuse and exploitation, and to provide them with an education in Nairobi. Radlmeier hopes to eventually secure their resettlement in the West, as she did for the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish citizen who graduated from the U-M College of Architecture in 1935. In 1944 the Swedish Foreign Ministry sent Wallenberg on a rescue mission to Budapest where his incomparable personal courage and ingenuity saved 100,000 Jewish lives. The Raoul Wallenberg Endowment was established at the University of Michigan in 1985 to commemorate Wallenberg and to recognize other individuals whose own courageous actions exemplify Wallenberg’s extraordinary humanitarian accomplishments and values. Previous Wallenberg Medal recipients include Miep Gies, the woman who supported Ann Frank and her family in hiding, and Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The lecture and medal ceremony are cosponsored by the Wallenberg Endowment and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

For more information on this event see the Rackham Graduate School web site at http://www.rackham.umich.edu/