One of the 26,000 Sudanese orphans of The Lost Boys of Sudan, Daniel Garange, will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the University Center Bayou City Room to help raise awareness of the violence in Darfur, Sudan. Garange was invited to speak by The UH chapter of STAND: A student Anti-genocide Coalition.
English post baccalaureate student Teresa Pham, accounting senior Erica Stephenson and biochemistry post doctorate student Madhan Tirumalai founded the UH chapter in November 2006 to bring the issues of Darfur to students’ attention.
"It is necessary to be active and not just idle while injustice happens," Pham said. "It’s harder for Americans to feel the need to reach out because it doesn’t affect them directly, but if we were to think… in that way about the Holocaust or Rwanda, then it wouldn’t have been stopped."
Pham and Stephenson said they want to see students voice their concerns about the situation in Sudan, which began when Sudanese troops and militia groups known as Janjaweed arrived in the western area of the country in 2003 to fight rebel troops, according to the BBC.
Since then, the United Nations has sent peacekeeping troops to pacify the ongoing violence, which has killed an estimated 200,000 people and has caused approximately 2.5 million people to flee into neighboring countries, The New York Times reported.
"I really believe that we are all put here on Earth to help out one another," Stephenson said. "If I did not do anything to try and stop the situation in Darfur, I would feel like I have let my fellow world citizens down. It is important for people to be aware of what is happening around the world."
