Meramec hosts second annual genocide awareness month.
By: Ashley Higginbotham
-Asst. News Editor-
This year marks the second year STLCC-Meramec is hosting Genocide Awareness Month activities on campus. Keynote speaker John Bul Dau, library displays and posters hanging around campus are just a few of the ideas Cindy Epperson, coordinator and Professor of Sociology and others have.
“The purpose is to honor those who have been victims of genocide and to educate on genocide for the prevention of future genocides,” Epperson said.
On April 15, a showing of “God Grew Tired of Us” will play at 11 a.m. in the Student Center cafeteria. “God Grew Tired of Us” is a 2006 documentary which features three of the Lost Boys of Sudan. The documentary follows three men and their journey to America. It shows the successes, failures and struggles of making it out of civil war alive.
“The two things your parents tell you to never talk about are politics and religion,” Epperson said. “But I feel like genocide is another one because no one wants to talk about it.”
Epperson said that while no one likes to talk about it, the first step in preventing genocide is education, she read from research.
Throughout the month, Francine Sigmund’s ENG 060 class will have posters hung around campus. Her students are reading “Outcasts United.” Sigmund said it fit well into the month’s activities.
“I split the students into groups and each of the groups brainstormed designs for the posters,” Sigmund said.
This is a service learning project for the students, and is an ESL class so it helps students with their English, Sigmund said.
“Some of the students are refugees, so it hits close to home,” Sigmund said.
On April 25, John Bul Dau, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and star in God Grew Tired of Us will be speaking in the Theatre from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
“April is also International Awareness Month, which is where I got the idea for the activities from,” Epperson said.
April was chosen because several genocides such as Rwanda and Cambodia began in April, according to the Holocaust Museum Houston.
Epperson researched genocide for her IDS and Human Rights classes and found that 85 to 87 genocides have occurred since the Holocaust. Epperson said when she brought that number to her students they had no idea there were that many. All of the events are open to any student, faculty or community member.“ Everything is open to anyone,” Epperson said.
