US Students Taking a Stand
By Amanda S. Coleman
Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) is a student anti-genocide group with many chapters from high schools and colleges throughout the US and Canada. Their main goals are to generate awareness, and to take political action towards ending the terrible genocide in Darfur, Sudan. They also raise money to give to other organizations in Darfur, working towards relief.
The NYU chapter, which has about 40 members, has already been fairly active this year. On Sept. 17, 2006, they held a candlelight vigil in Washington Square Park for the victims of the genocide. Attendees were given an opportunity to recite or read poetry, share prayers, articulate their thoughts and opinions about Darfur, read facts, or anything relating to the genocide. On the same day, the group also attended the Darfur Rally in Central Park with a group of NYU students. They held a fast where people either fasted all day, or gave up an item and then donated the money that they would have spent that day to Doctors Without Borders.
STAND was also involved in the talk sponsored by the Bronfman Center, given by Paul Rusesabagina – a humanitarian hero of the Rwanda genocide in 1994 – and the Islamic Center’s Fast-a-thon for Darfur. Recently, in New York, they planned a die-in, which is a unique sort of protest where people lie on the ground and try to produce a visual depiction of what it is like for those suffering and dying in Darfur. The point of this attention-grabbing protest is to create awareness towards the general public in a compelling way. “What unites our group is the desire to bring meaning to the words ‘never again’,” says co-president Isaac Rowlett.
The official NYU chapter of STAND started quite recently. In the spring of 2006, Rikki Gunton and Isaac Rowlett (who are current co-presidents of the group) decided to initiate an NYU chapter in order to build a stronger net of support and activism for the Darfur cause. Starting a chapter also enabled NYU to become involved in national and international events around the world. Becoming an official chapter requires only declaring oneself as a STAND chapter and then registering with STAND national, which is based at Georgetown University.
STAND has high expectations for success. They hope to raise even more awareness about the events in Darfur, and to get more people concerned and active in putting a stop to it. “We hope to inspire students on campus, the general public, and especially our leaders to take stronger action to end the genocide in Darfur, where people are killed and raped, villages are bombed, and millions are forced out of their homes into unstable refugee camps along and over the borders,” says Rowlett.
