Students Taking Action Now in Darfur asked students around the world to give up one luxury item Wednesday, either a morning latte or a meal, and donate the money they would have spent on those items to a Darfur organization.
The event, centered mainly on college campuses, aimed to help and raise awareness for victims of genocide in the region.
This is the first year Action in Sudan, a UW-Madison student organization affiliated with STAND, participated in the national DarfurFast event. The group promoted the day on campus with a demonstration on Bascom Hill and tables at Memorial Union.
It gives you a chance to donate the money you would have spent, but also to understand what hunger is actually like and what it means to have to give something up,"" said Rebecca Gilsdrf, a UW-Madison sophomore and co-president of Action in Sudan.
""It's a really small thing a person can do and feel like they are helping in some way.""
Action in Sudan set up a visual display of 1,000 green flags on Bascom Hill, each flag representing 450 people who have died in Sudan either as a direct result of the conflict or of other complications such as hunger or disease.
Gilsdorf said she hoped the display would help students better understand the amount of people who have died in Darfur.
""It gives people a scope of what's going on,"" Gilsdorf said. ""Just saying 450,000 doesn't mean a lot, but when you realize each flag represents almost 500 people, it puts it more into perspective.""
Action in Sudan launched a few years ago when a group of students in anthropology professor Sharon Hutchinson's class were moved by the course material. The group has since brought numerous guest lecturers to campus and raised money for the people in Southern Sudan.
""The main goal always is awareness - o - ojust to get people to understand what's happening and why this is such an issue."" said Jake Naughton, a UW-Madison sophomore and co-president of Action in Sudan.
""There are still so many people who don't even know where Darfur is.
