Students Complete Letter Signing Campaign to End Slavery in the Sudan

SUNY Rockland Students Complete Letter Signing Campaign
to End Slavery in the Sudan

Rockland County residents invited to sign letters at final event

Suffern, NY - State and local elected officials have been invited by SUNY Rockland students to a letter signing event urging support for a House resolution to abolish slavery in Sudan.

Congressman Eliot Engel and Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee will send representatives to collect more than 2,000 signed letters at the "Freedom in Sudan” event on April 20, 1 p.m., on the patio outside the Student Union on the main campus in Suffern. Rockland County residents are invited to sign additional letters at the event.

Inspired into action after hearing the former slave Simon Deng, a refugee of southern Sudan who was abducted and sold into slavery at the age of nine, speak at the College last fall, students Paul Schulman and Mark Svensson formed an Anti-Slavery Committee so students could run a formal letter-writing campaign urging officials to support a House resolution to abolish slavery in Sudan. House Resolution (H.R.) 3844, proposed by Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, calls for an end to slavery in Sudan and for human rights to be granted the slaves when they are freed.

Mark Svensson said, "We serve as a voice to those without a voice in Sudan."

Paul Schulman added, "The Anti-Slavery Committee has given me the opportunity to speak out against slavery in Sudan and show our representatives that the RCC community will not tolerate it."

Svensson and Schulman have been going from class to class speaking to the students about slavery and have stationed themselves at College events to collect signatures.

Dr. Cliff L. Wood, College President, said, "We have to be concerned about what's happening in Sudan, and I am very proud that students are speaking up."

Another student, Jessica Dohanyos, a Student Government Association sophomore senator, has also been actively involved in raising funds and bringing awareness to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Her final initiative before graduating is a fundraising banquet to be held on Tuesday, April 14, 6 – 8 p.m., in the Student Union, Room 3214. Admission: $5 minimum donation.

For more information, contact John Marra, Coordinator of Student Activities and Volunteer Services, at jmarra@sunyrockland.edu or (845) 574 – 4302.

For more information about former slave Simon Deng, who is a member of iAbolish American Anti-Slavery Group, visit: http://iabolish.org/ 

###

Rockland Community College, a unit of the State University of New York, is located 25 miles northwest of NYC. The majority of its students transfer to four-year colleges, and many find immediate employment upon earning their associate's degree or certificate. The College also offers others, from preschoolers to senior citizens, the opportunity to simply learn something new. Quality education...at a price you can afford.