The African interest club Apwonjo, meaning “I teach” in the African language Luo, hosted El-Fadel Arbab, a survivor of the Darfur genocide, to speak in Gallalee Hall Wednesday.

Apwonjo first presented to the audience of students a video that detailed the efforts of “The Patchwork Tent Project.” The members of this initiative encourage young schoolchildren to send painted pictures to refugees of Sudan who reside in Chad because they have been displaced.

The recipients in Chad then draw their own picture on the back of painting sent to them.

The video noted that pictures from Chad were all of soldiers setting houses on fire or gunmen killing people with automatic rifles.

Timothy Nonn, the national coordinator of the initiative, explained that the nations capable of helping those in Darfur and Chad do not lend a hand since they’re only concerned about their own power.

“The powers that exist in this world are not concerned about human lives,” Nonn said.

Nonn said that the correspondence of art between communities in America and the Sudanese refugees in Chad raises awareness of the crisis in that area of Africa.

After the video and a brief introduction by Apwonjo’s president, Arbab walked to the front of the classroom and told his story.

When he was 12 years old, Arbab’s village fell under attack by the Janjaweed militia. As his family slept, the houses were being set on fire one by one and people were being locked inside to be burned alive.

“They would surround the village first, and second, they would collect the kids and the grandparents to put in the house,” Arbab said. “They wanted to burn the weak ones inside so they could save their bullets.”

Fortunately, Arbab escaped by running into the woods with his family, but because everyone was desperate to escape and hide from the crazed militiamen, Arbab found himself alone in the woods.

He climbed to the top of a tree and waited for the Janjaweed militiamen to disperse, and he then traveled to a nearby town to seek food and shelter.

Arbab said that he hopped from Sudan to Egypt and finally to Maine, where he currently lives.

Arbab said that life in America is far different from life in Darfur.

“There is no food, no shelter, no anything, no clothes,” Arbab said. “There are no schools in Darfur.”

In addition, Arbab said that on his first visit to the northern United States, he had to ask his friends what snow was, and upon seeing it for the first time, he ran outside to experience it for himself with only his pajamas on.

Arbab said that the best thing students at the University can do to raise awareness about genocide in Darfur and the displacement to Chad is to form organizations like Apwonjo and constantly collaborate on efforts to educate people and themselves about these issues.

Arbab said that although said military forces are needed on the ground to solve the crisis, he said President Obama is making worthwhile strides in communicating with nations about the genocide.

Arbab also said the international troops on the ground do nothing proactive to stop the bloodshed. He said that this inaction can be explained by the privileges the United Nations extends to sovereign nations.

“They don’t want to break the rules,” Arbab said.

Linn Groft, president of Apwonjo and a junior seeking a major from New College, said that the group chose to highlight the plight of refugees.

“We decided at the beginning of the semester to focus on what it’s like to be a refugee,” Groft said. “It’s hard to comprehend that someone’s lost a home, and so we got into contact with El-Fadel [to tell his story].”

Groft said she hopes students who heard Arbab’s story of survival can associate a human face with the crisis.

“I hope they will go home with a face to place to the issue,” Groft said. “It’s so far removed from our daily lives that it’s hard to comprehend.”