Former kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout kicked off Carleton’s first annual Yes You Can conference Jan. 15 with a keynote speech emphasizing forgiveness, no matter the circumstance.
Lindhout, who was held captive for 460 days in the East African country of Somalia, spoke to an auditorium of 200 students about the importance of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit.
“Most people listening to my talk today don’t have the same kinds of things to forgive, but all of us have things that we would be well-served to let go of,” Lindhout said.
The conference was billed as the first leadership event at Carleton to be organized entirely by students for students.
“It is kind of what I’m all about,” Lindhout said. “Reminding [people] of the power that we all have to create sustainable change in the world, so I was really excited to be asked to be part of this.”
Lindhout started her speech by talking about her captivity, briefly touching upon the abuses she suffered.
Lindhout and her fellow captive, Australian freelance photographer Nigel Brennan, actually escaped at one point, but were quickly tracked down and brought back to captivity, she said.
She said she had started to lose faith in humanity before realizing that self-pity would only worsen her condition. That was when she decided the only way to survive was to recognize the moments of goodness in her life.
“I knew if I chose that they could never break me, they would never crush my spirit,” she said.
In her speech, she said that by forgiving her captors, not only was she able to get through the months of torture, but she was also able to get something positive out of the experience: her foundation that provides scholarships to Somalian women.
“My story illustrates that you can have enormous things that you can let go of and forgive, and find the freedom in that,” she said.
Inspired by a woman who tried to save her the day she and Brennan attempted to escape, Lindhout founded the Global Enrichment Foundation in May 2010, a program that provides scholarships to Somalian women to develop their leadership.
“Women in Somalia haven’t given up on themselves,” she said. “Women can achieve greatness if only given the chance.”
After $700,000 was paid in ransom, Lindhout and Brennan were eventually released. It remains unclear as to where all the money came from, as the Canadian government has a strict policy against paying ransoms.
The most important thing about this type of event is to make sure students realize they can get involved and make their community a better place, said Emile Scheffel, a fourth-year political science student and media spokesperson for Yes You Can.
He said he hopes students are inspired by Lindhout’s experience.
“They already have the capacity and the potential to do incredible things, and I hope today they get motivated to actually do them,” Scheffel said.
The day-long event featured several workshops emphasizing different aspects of leadership.
Led by various students and faculty members, the workshops were divided into three streams: entrepreneurial, environmental and philanthropic.
“[The conference] emphasized the importance of building a strong foundation in leadership skills,” said second-year journalism student Clifford Lam.
Second-year social work student Meaghan Zerebecki said she initially attended the conference merely at the suggestion of a friend, but would be taking a lot of valuable lessons away from it.
“I thought it would be really interesting to get first-hand experience on how people approach leadership in the world today,” Zerebecki said.
Lindhout stressed the importance of education to making a change, and said she believed things would have been much different had her captors been given an education.
“We have so much power to affect change and we need to utilize that.”