Fanshawe takes action on crisis in Darfur
Thousands of kilometers away in Darfur innocent people are dying, and now is the time for Fanshawe to take a stand.
On Thursday, November 8, a conference will be held at Fanshawe College on the continuing crisis in Darfur, the western region of Sudan.
According to the United Nations, since 2003, an estimated 400,000 people in Darfur have lost their lives and some two million more have been driven from their homes. It was in early 2003 that rebel groups in Darfur started attacking government forces and installations, having accused the government of neglecting the region and oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs there.
In response, the Sudanese government armed Arab Janjaweed militia for the purpose of systematically attacking the civilian populations of the black African tribes, from which the rebels were primarily drawn, precipitating what the United Nations has characterized as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The rape of women, has been widespread. Relief workers have been targeted by the Janjaweed, rebels groups and bandits, which has made humanitarian access very difficult.
The conference, which is the work of the Canadian Centre for Genocide Education, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) Fanshawe, and STAND Western, will be getting underway at Noon in SC 2013 (Alumni Lounge). The first panel of speakers, which will examine the background to the crisis, will feature Dr. Norman Epstein, the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan (CASTS); Ms. Jen Marlowe, an activist, filmmaker, and author from the United States; and Professor Peter Langille from The University of Western Ontario.
The second panel will highlight how students can take action as global citizens. Rich Hitchens, the Founder and President of the Canadian Centre for Genocide Education and an instructor in the School of Language and Liberal Studies here at Fanshawe, pointed to the hard work and determination of groups like STAND as a role model for students - not to mention non-students - everywhere.
“Students have led the activism on Darfur,” Hitchens observed. “STAND and the students who comprise it have been a moral beacon when so many others, older others with much more time, not to mention means, at their disposal, have preferred to look away.”
A special screening of the film Darfur Diaries will take place at the Wolf Performance Hall of the London Public Library at 7:00 p.m. on November 8.
At the height of the crisis, a group of young activists snuck into Darfur to record some of the first footage of the crimes taking place there. The result was the film, Darfur Diaries, and a book of the same name. Jen Marlowe, one of the filmmakers and authors, will speak after the film screening. A book sale and book signing will conclude the event.
Hitchens was inspired to develop the conference by two students in his course, “The Century of Genocide,” being offered here at Fanshawe.
“I received an e-mail from a student who indicated that she and another student in the class would not be in attendance on the Monday because they were going to be in Ottawa attending a STAND rally on Parliament Hill,” Hitchens said. “I won't lie to you. I was taken aback. I was surprised and encouraged.”
There is not cost to attend the panels at Fanshawe. Donations will be taken at the door for the film screening at the London Public Library.
For more information, please visit genocideeducation.ca or call 519-936-2235.
On Thursday, November 8, a conference will be held at Fanshawe College on the continuing crisis in Darfur, the western region of Sudan.
According to the United Nations, since 2003, an estimated 400,000 people in Darfur have lost their lives and some two million more have been driven from their homes. It was in early 2003 that rebel groups in Darfur started attacking government forces and installations, having accused the government of neglecting the region and oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs there.
In response, the Sudanese government armed Arab Janjaweed militia for the purpose of systematically attacking the civilian populations of the black African tribes, from which the rebels were primarily drawn, precipitating what the United Nations has characterized as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The rape of women, has been widespread. Relief workers have been targeted by the Janjaweed, rebels groups and bandits, which has made humanitarian access very difficult.
The conference, which is the work of the Canadian Centre for Genocide Education, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) Fanshawe, and STAND Western, will be getting underway at Noon in SC 2013 (Alumni Lounge). The first panel of speakers, which will examine the background to the crisis, will feature Dr. Norman Epstein, the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan (CASTS); Ms. Jen Marlowe, an activist, filmmaker, and author from the United States; and Professor Peter Langille from The University of Western Ontario.
The second panel will highlight how students can take action as global citizens. Rich Hitchens, the Founder and President of the Canadian Centre for Genocide Education and an instructor in the School of Language and Liberal Studies here at Fanshawe, pointed to the hard work and determination of groups like STAND as a role model for students - not to mention non-students - everywhere.
“Students have led the activism on Darfur,” Hitchens observed. “STAND and the students who comprise it have been a moral beacon when so many others, older others with much more time, not to mention means, at their disposal, have preferred to look away.”
A special screening of the film Darfur Diaries will take place at the Wolf Performance Hall of the London Public Library at 7:00 p.m. on November 8.
At the height of the crisis, a group of young activists snuck into Darfur to record some of the first footage of the crimes taking place there. The result was the film, Darfur Diaries, and a book of the same name. Jen Marlowe, one of the filmmakers and authors, will speak after the film screening. A book sale and book signing will conclude the event.
Hitchens was inspired to develop the conference by two students in his course, “The Century of Genocide,” being offered here at Fanshawe.
“I received an e-mail from a student who indicated that she and another student in the class would not be in attendance on the Monday because they were going to be in Ottawa attending a STAND rally on Parliament Hill,” Hitchens said. “I won't lie to you. I was taken aback. I was surprised and encouraged.”
There is not cost to attend the panels at Fanshawe. Donations will be taken at the door for the film screening at the London Public Library.
For more information, please visit genocideeducation.ca or call 519-936-2235.
