A group of 12 MSU students traveled to Washington on Friday to learn how to turn their concern about the current conditions in Darfur, Sudan, into activism.
The students attended the conference "A Call to Action for Darfur, Sudan," sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The conference took place Saturday, with student workshops on the campus of Georgetown University on Sunday.
The MSU students now plan to create a student organization to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur.
"I think a lot of students know what's going on but don't know what they can do to help," international relations and Jewish studies senior Josh Feinberg said.
According to the museum, about 400 students participated from more than 90 universities nationwide.
Feinberg said the workshops gave MSU students a direction to take once they got back to campus.
"We want to raise money for refugees as well as put pressure on our government to take action," Feinberg said.
Feinberg said MSU students have a unique opportunity because they live near their state's capital and have greater access to legislators. He said America has a responsibility to take action to prevent more bloodshed.
The U.N. Web site states that tens of thousands of people in Sudan have been killed in the violence since early 2003, and more than 1.5 million refugees have been displaced.
Officials from the museum said they sponsored the event because they consider the situation in Sudan to be a "genocide emergency."
"It's lubricious to think this could happen in this day and age," Feinberg said.
Director of Jewish Studies Ken Waltzer said the university issued a statement to find students interested when they heard about the event. He said they had planned to send about three students to the conference, but 22 applied.
Waltzer said with the help of the Hillel Jewish Student Center, the Office of the Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs and Services and the dean of James Madison College, the university raised enough money to send 12 students.
Osman Elfaki, whose family is from Sudan's capital, Khartoum, also attended the conference.
Elfaki, an international relations sophomore, said the conference was interesting, but lacked a Northern Sudanese perspective.
Elfaki said the majority of the world believes the country's situation is the fault of the Northern Sudanese government. Elfaki said he did not believe the situation in Darfur was a genocide or that Sudan's government was responsible.
"I believe the government is responsible for not bringing these militants to justice, but not for the killings," Elfaki said.
Elfaki said after the conference he realized there are many misconceptions about the situation in Sudan. Now he wants to work to educate people as well as aid refugees.
"I want to help the people in Darfur as well as raise students' awareness of both sides of the issue," Elfaki said.
