{{The St. Thomas Aquinas High School Lux in Tenebris (“Light in Darkness”) Award was established in 2006 to honour members of the St. Thomas Aquinas High School community who have made significant and enduring contributions to humanity. Humanitarian acts aimed at alleviating suffering and helping to build a just world lie at the heart of this award.
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This year’s recipient is Beata Umugwangwali, parent of three St. Thomas Aquinas graduates, Roger ’99, Gloria ’02 and Doris ’08. A native of Rwanda, Beata and her children fled their homeland during the genocide of 1994. Her husband had been killed on his way to the hospital; he had been transporting his father who had suffered a heart attack. After a year in Burundi and Kenya, Beata and her children and her sister — with no more than the clothes on their backs — came to New Hampshire in March 1995. Their arrival was made possible by Catholic Charities and the parish of St. Thomas More in Durham.

Almost alone, Beata knew she simply had to start over. But starting over was not easy — she didn’t speak English and her nurse’s credentials were not recognized here; she kept her family together by cleaning rooms in hotels.

Understanding the importance of education, Beata went back to school, learned English, earned her LPN license and made a life for herself and her family in the United States.

However, Beata’s story is not merely one of survival, nor even of overcoming the odds her accomplishments are far more than that. In 2005, she returned to Butare, Rwanda to show her children where she grew up. She was devastated to see the condition of the school she attended as a child, and at that moment, she committed herself to restoring the school to its previous glory.

Through Habitat for Humanity, Beata and friends raised nearly $100,000 in two years. They repaired abandoned and destroyed school buildings, creating new classrooms, fixing bathrooms and equipping some schools with a computer lab to teach English using the Rosetta Stone computer program.

Even after the graduation of her children, Beata has continued to share her experiences with the students of St. Thomas Aquinas. A few years ago, STA Social Studies teacher Jennifer Duprat asked Beata to give a presentation to one of her classes.

“She is such a compassionate person,” said Jennifer. “She never focused on placing blame for the genocide, but instead her focus was on moving forward and helping people rebuild. She first worked incredibility hard to give her family a new life here in the United States. She faced incredible adversity, but new gave up. Then she set about helping to rebuild in her home country, Rwanda.”

These days, Beata is a nurse in the Endoscopy Department at Wentworth Douglass Hospital, and in 2009, she was honored with WDH’s President’s Award for her contributions to the hospital and to others. Her three children all graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School and have since gone on to college. Beata made great sacrifices to send her children to St. Thomas Aquinas; she wanted her children to grow in their Catholic faith, and the continuity of a Catholic education was important to the lives of her children — children who themselves had suffered the great tragedy of the Rwandan genocide.

Beata’s children have inherited more than their mother’s courage. They, too, have also committed themselves to aiding the schoolchildren of their mother’s home. Over the years, they have raised money for school renovations, uniforms and school supplies in Rwanda.

Principal Kevin Collins spoke of Beata’s passion for serving others.

“There have been few tragedies as overwhelming as the Rwandan conflict, certainly in my lifetime — indeed in the history of humankind. For someone to have survived the horrors of that event is evidence of courage; to have returned to help rebuild is evidence of compassion. The world has too little of either¿and to possess both is proof positive of God’s goodness in the world,” said Collins.

The Lux in Tenebris Award will be presented at the St. Thomas Aquinas High School graduation ceremony on June 5 at noon.