By David Gordon, Managing Editor

From April 26 to April 30, the Hofstra Human Action Club will be taking part in a week-long event called “Refugee Camp(us),” to take place on Calkins’ Quad. Participants will willingly displace themselves in this pseudo camp for the entire week in order to raise money for the United Nations Refugee Agency.

There will be four simulated refugee camps: Burma (Myanmar), Sudan, Colombia and Haiti.
Refugee Camp(us) was started last year at Queens College through the national student anti-genocide group STAND, according to program co-coordinator Josh Gwin. “They just thought, what can we do to raise awareness of refugees and human rights? So basically they just threw up tents and camped in the quad,” Gwin said.

“The idea is that students, faculty and community members will camp out on a college campus for one week in a sign of global solidarity with our world’s refugees,” he said. “At some levels it’s trying to raise awareness about their struggles and at other levels it’s trying to actually promote change. It’s trying to take tangible means of change and activism and then also to train the students to become advocates for these refugees and in general advocates for human rights as a whole.”

Each day has a different theme (for example, Tuesday is a day devoted to medicine). The event will feature speakers, film showings, an event called “True Life: I Am A Refugee” as well as a hunger banquet. Sixty percent of the participants of the hunger banquet will be given nothing but a small bowl of rice. Thirty percent will be given rice and some vegetables. The remaining ten percent will be fed a lavish meal.

For more information – or to arrange to participate in Refugee Camp(us), contact [email protected].