Providence, R.I.--In an effort to raise awareness of global genocide, Providence College will host "MasterPeace" Week from April 19-25.

MasterPeace will feature a series of interactive events, lectures, open forums, and simulations. Sponsored by the Board of Multicultural Student Affairs, the Balfour Center for Multicultural Affairs, and several other clubs and offices, all events are open to the public.

The idea for MasterPeace was conceived by Malika Jones '10 of Hackensack, N.J., who petitioned Rhode Island Campus Compact to help fund the series. In February, Jones received $500 in "Raise Your Voice" funds from the organization.

Raise Your Voice is a national effort that engages students in public life and enables them to speak out on issues of importance to them. Rhode Island Campus Compact, in collaboration with Massachusetts Campus Compact, offers competitive grants to campuses to support civic activities including student dialogues, conferences, and service.

Jones was one of only 15 students in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to receive the "Raise Your Voice" funds.

She said the inspiration behind MasterPeace came from a lecture given by Sudanese hip-hop artist Emmanuel Jal at PC last October.

Jal was born in war-torn Sudan in the early 1980s. He was taken from his family home in 1987 and sent to fight with the rebel army in Sudan's civil war. For nearly five years, he was a "child warrior," and by the time he was 13, he was a veteran of two civil wars and witness to atrocities carried out by his fellow soldiers.

"We heard a truly emotional story about a life nobody on this campus could even imagine," Jones said. "However, this story is a realistic one for thousands of people in places like Sudan and various other regions around the world."

Jones, Thomas Ongeri '10 of Jersey City, N.J., several classmates, and PC staff members began to brainstorm a means of building on Jal's inspiration. Out of this effort, MasterPeace was created.

"He challenged us to make an impact, and as Christian students at Providence College we challenge ourselves to make a difference for the good of mankind," she said. "I wanted to find people who were as passionate as me in order to figure out the way we could provide the opportunity for PC to make a sound difference and work to prevent and put to end the horrors of genocide."

The schedule for MasterPeace Week is as follows:

• On Sunday, April 19, there will be a candlelight vigil at 8:00 p.m. in the courtyard adjacent to the Feinstein Academic Center. The purpose of the vigil is to remember those who have fallen victim to ongoing acts of violence. It will be led by Albert Silverstein, who will speak about his escape from Austria via the "Kindertransport" in 1938.
• On Monday, April 20, at 8:00 p.m., there will be an historical art exhibit and guest presentations on "Forgotten Genocide" in Slavin Center '64 Hall. This will be followed by an event where students are invited to the West Campus Quad to spend the night in a simulated refugee camp as part of "Refugee Challenge."
• On Tuesday, April 21, at 9:00 a.m., a "Human Rights Violation Simulation" will replicate the experience of child kidnapping and human displacement.
• On Wednesday, April 22, there will be a one-act play, The Genocide Monologues, at 8:00 p.m. in Slavin Center '64 Hall. The play will tell the story of a family's struggle to overcome the Burmese genocide. The original play was written by Jones and Nedzer Erilus, suites complex director in the PC Office of Residence Life.
• On Thursday, April 23, at 7:00 p.m., in Slavin Center '64 Hall, there will be a panel discussion and a student question-and-answer forum with Scott Warren, president of the Brown University STAND chapter, Doud Salih, a Kenyan refugee survivor, and faculty members from PC and other local colleges.
• Those who took part in the week's "Freedom Fast" will be rewarded with a Friday, April 24, banquet at noon in '64 Hall.
• The week will close on Saturday, April 25, with back-to-back events at the Peterson Recreation Center. Beginning at 6:00 p.m., students from PC and other local colleges will get together to discuss further ways of taking action against global conflicts. At 8:00 p.m., the field house will host a benefit concert to raise money for a new school, known as Emma Academy, in Sudan. The namesake for the school is the late Emma McCune, a former British foreign aid worker whom Jal credits with saving his own life and that of at least 150 other Sudanese war children.

--30--