Kansas students make documentary on American nurse who rescued orphaned Armenian children

Last November, a group of middle school students in Mayetta, Kansas, USA, began work on a documentary about Emma Darling Cushman—an American nurse who rescued thousands of Armenian children who had been orphaned during the genocide, reported cjonline.

When the Ottomans were expelling westerners from their territory after entering World War I, Cushman remained in Konya, Turkey, to continue operating a hospital she had worked at for over a decade. After the genocide began, she turned the hospital into an orphanage, found safe homes for endangered children and tried to bring shattered families back together.

Luke Boyden, one of these students, explained that this was extremely dangerous at a time when Ottoman forces were actively searching for Armenians.

Beyond the research these students conducted, they interviewed experts on Armenian Genocide, such as Richard Hovannisian, and Sara Cohan.

In addition to a $7,500 prize, the students’ documentary earned them the privilege of providing the inscription for Cushman’s headstone at the American Cemetery in Cairo, Egypt. They chose “Emma Darling Cushman: A Light in the Darkness.”