Wynter Fenn, with a Band-aid wrapped around her finger, maneuvered a green ribbon into a makeshift bow and glued it down onto a flat, foot-long piece of wood. She set it down on a conference table next to a hundred more just like it. She called it a marker — part of a graveyard in the making.
The markers, Fenn explained, are just one part of Genocide Awareness Week, five days of events, presentations and film screenings from a handful of ASU groups that are looking to raise awareness about global atrocities, specifically the conflict in Darfur, Sudan.
Along with other volunteers, Fenn, a justice studies junior and president of the ASU advocacy group Students Taking Action Now for Darfur, is placing the markers in planters around campus, each one representing lives lost in the ongoing genocide in Darfur.
Sitting next to Fenn in the cramped conference room-turned-workshop for a day, Lauren Downey added another marker to the pile.
“The graveyard will wake people up,” Downey said.
“That’s the idea,” Fenn said. “Getting people’s attention, though, can be the hardest part.”
What Fenn and Downey are trying to bring to the eyes of students are the nearly half-million people who have been killed in Darfur, a region of Sudan, in northeastern Africa that has been under immense civil unrest for years.
On Monday, STAND and Student Advocates for Global Justice members plan to hold a “flash freeze,” where more than 40 people in white shirts standing in the Memorial Union will come to a complete stop at exactly the same time.
“Imagine 40 people in the MU all of a sudden stop moving — they just freeze,” Fenn said. “Someone kneeling down to pick something up, someone about to take a drink — we are going to just freeze for about seven minutes.”
Fenn said that five minutes seemed too short and 10 minutes too long.
Those taking part in the flash freeze include members of the Human Rights Campaign at ASU, a smaller portion of the national nonprofit, gearing its efforts toward raising awareness about LGBT issues in Africa.
“Our shirts will have different quotes or statistics pointed toward an anti-GLBT (gay lesbian bisexual transsexual) bill (in Uganda),” HRC at ASU member Stephanie Mahan said.
Presentations like the flash freeze is what SAGJ representative Ginger Hanson called breaking through the noise.
“It is all about raising awareness,” Hanson said.
Student Advocates for Global Justice will be hosting a presentation Monday night, discussing the use and interpretations of the word “genocide.”
Cory Williams, co-founder of Darfur And Beyond, said it is incredible to see so many groups come together and fill the week with great events.
“We are in the business of putting ourselves out of business,” Williams said. “We all want the day when the violence stops and the day we won’t have to approach people on the sidewalk and tell them about the atrocities going on.”
Tuesday, an event called Be Hope to Her will include a film documenting the difficulties women face in parts of Africa.
Wednesday includes discussion panels with survivors from genocide and a film screening of the documentary “God Grew Tired of Us.”
All day Thursday the HRC at ASU is participating in a national day of silence. STAND will host a free dinner, presentations from a holocaust survivor along with refugees from Rwanda and Bhutan, areas that have also seen conflict.
Friday, STAND will end the week with another flash freeze near College Avenue and University Drive around 11:15 a.m.
A complete listing of events is available online at sagjasu.blogspot.com.
Kevin Minns, a senior women and gender studies student, said he understands why some students have a hard time getting involved in organizations like STAND, where he has been involved for years.
“This is not a cheerleading movement,” Minns said. “This is not a topic that you can discuss over dinner.”
Minns said his interest is that of spreading awareness.
“My mindset was not one of that of a rescuer, or putting an ‘S’ on my chest and being Superman, it was to raise that awareness that helps people understand.”
Fenn said that between all the events, films and presentations, measuring success is hard to do.
“I know that I am not going to end genocide and that this is a global effort. And if it ends, it’s not over for me. This is a life-long thing for me,” she said.
“As long as we can hopefully affect even one person on campus, to have them come around ... that is enough for me.”
Reach the reporter at kpatton4@asu.edu
