SUDAN strives for human rights awareness

The government in the Darfur region of Sudan has violently removed 1.8 million people from their homes — and students on campus refuse to let the injustices go unnoticed.

“It’s one of those things that our generation should definitely not ignore,” said senior Anna Thompson, president and founder of the campus organization Students United for Darfur Awareness Now.

Thompson got the idea for SUDAN in August, when her internship with N.C. Hillel required her to start a group with a cause for social justice. She said she researched the situation of “ethnic cleansing” in Darfur and decided it needed student attention.

SUDAN’s 35 to 40 active members work toward change through letter-writing campaigns and various fund-raisers.

“The main purpose is to call attention to the atrocities of this genocide,” Thompson said.

The organization is starting a new fund-raising initiative on campus to help found schools for children in refugee camps in Chad and Sudan.

“Not only have they lost everything, but now they’ve lost two years of education,” Thompson said.

Students will be able to purchase and donate school supplies in the Pit for the effort.

More students became involved in the effort by attending “A Call to Action for Darfur: National Student Leadership Conference” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Feb. 5.

The conference featured speakers who presented information on Darfur’s history and the problems it now faces.

“We left feeling a mixture of depression and motivation,” said senior Jacob Goad, one of the UNC students in attendance. “We really feel like we can do something about this.”

Freshman Alexandra Mitsidou, who also attended the conference, said 500 students from the East Coast attended the event — far more than the 100 organizers were expecting.

“It was so inspiring,” said Mitsidou, originally from Cypress. “It made me glad to be a college student in the U.S.”

Students say their efforts are, in large part, an attempt not to repeat past mistakes.

A 1994 genocide in Rwanda left almost 800,000 people murdered — the subject of the recent film “Hotel Rwanda.” SUDAN members say that tragedy is being repeated in Darfur.

Women are being systematically raped, and thousands of people are being killed by the government, said Goad, an active member of SUDAN.

“It’s important to act now,” Goad said. “We acted too late with Rwanda, and if we act too late now the genocide will continue.”

Goad is working for political change as the advocacy organizer of SUDAN. He has organized letter-writing and phone campaigns and has spoken with various U.S. senators.

“There is a lot of talk about the importance of homeland security here, but we should recognize other people’s security situations,” he said.

SUDAN members also are working at the local level, trying to get the Chapel Hill Town Council to pass resolutions on the subject.

A national minute of silence for Darfur was held March 17, but because the date coincided with Spring Break, most students were not on campus to participate. SUDAN is considering planning a campuswide minute of silence in the next few weeks, Thompson said.

Goad said efforts like these have helped the general student body become more aware of the conditions in Darfur.

“There will always be a population of students who are numb to the conditions of the world, but the awareness has definitely increased over the past few months.”

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