STAND at The University of Pittsburgh

In 2006, the University of Pittsburgh begot it's chapter of STAND. After the emotional and inspiring story of Paul Russessabagina, two students, Meredith Mishkin and Emily Haimowitz, came together with the support of the campus to create an advocacy organization aimed at stopping genocide.

With over 25 members, the club began to grow. We held die-ins, rallies where students would litterally 'die' in front of the campus, lying there to show what what happening in Darfur, Sudan. Speakers would come to educate students, and help them to understand just how important this cause was, and how we, as students could help.

Over the past two years, we have realized that Dafur is not the only situation where our efforts would be of use. We have started to educate people about the situation in Burma, where the government has a vice-like grip on the population. It is a regime so brutal that they took to killing unarmed monks in Septemer of 2007.

In the Congo a brutal war between rebel groups and the government is fundd through the very purchases that we make here in the United States. Mineral rich Congo is using the proceeds of mineral sales to finance a deadly war that has been called the worst crisis of rape in the world.

STAND - at the University of Pittsburgh - began in order to help students understand these conflicts and show them how they can get involved and stop them. We hope that you will join us.

Contact: univpittstand@gmail.com