REFUGEE CAMPus

Join us as we sleep out on our quad for 5 days and 4 nights to raise consciousness and action about refugee crises worldwide, including: Sudan, the DRC, Zimbabwe, the United States, Haiti, Western Asia (aka Middle East), and environmental refugees.

Last year, only Queens College hosted REFUGEE CAMPus. This year, it's NATIONAL: LA, Cincinnati, and Hofstra University here in NY, the list of participating schools is growing! JOIN US!

STAND at Queens College has partnered with Global Friends in Aid and learning to send 10 Congolese conflict-affected students to school in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Paying for the education of these ten students will in the near future also educate these students' younger siblings, because in the DRC, older siblings take that responsibility.

The supplies we will be using during the week will be purchased from a group that supports girls' education in India, so we will be helping in that regard, as well.

Educational events, open-mic events, freestyle Peace Jam, calling campaigns, letter campaigns, artistic expression events, and more will mark our REFUGEE CAMPus as an effective advocacy, awareness-raising, and activist-inspiring event.

Don't go to Queens College? Send a message our way and we can help you set up REFUGEE CAMPus at YOUR school!!! :)

SEE YOU OUT THERE!

Monday, August 30th Kickoff:

7:00 am – 12 noon: STAND students set up camp tents

12:15 pm – 1:30 pm: Speakers:
QC President James Muyskens
Statement from former President Bill Clinton
Statement from Congressperson Gregory Meeks
Statement from John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project

9:00 pm activist empowerment training: how to tell the Story of Self, Us, and Now (how one’s personal history relates to their actions and relations to their community and larger world)

Tuesday, August 31st

2:00 pm: LGBTQ Youth and Homelessness: did you know that over 40% of youth who are homeless in this country identify as LGBTQ? Daniel Castellanos of the Queens Pride House shares this information and more with us.

6:30 pm: “A Discussion of Peoplehood & Refugeesin the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict” Lecture by Middle East expert Professor Mark Rosenblum and Ghaith al Omari, Advocacy Director at the American Task Force in Palestine. Small-group dialogues will afterwards be facilitated by trained QC STAND students. (This is the only event that will occur inside: it will be in the Ratio Room near the cafeteria.)

Wednesday, September 1st

12:15-1:30 pm: presentation by Marc A. Yaggi, Deputy Director of the Waterkeeper Alliance on the individuals in India, Senegal, and China who are fighting for their communities’ right to clean water and dealing with terrible forms of pollution and disease.

Thursday, September 2nd

10:00-11:00 am: presentation on the massive refugee crisis in Afghanistan by Professor Jawied Nawabi, professor of Economics and Sociology at Bronx Community College, CUNY, and an Afghanistan Peace Association (APA) member

9:00 pm Peace Jam (acoustic guitars, drums, and voices of students of so many languages, experiences, and beliefs)

Friday, September 3rd

9:30-10:30 am: presentation on the genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Professor Yaa-Lengi Ngemi, Director of Research of the New York-based African Research and Educational Institute, Inc., a not-for-profit institution.

11:30 am tree planting ceremony to commemorate our event and, more importantly, why we did it

12:30 pm students break down the camp, sending some of the tents to Haiti, where they can be used by families who are still living under only sheets of plastic.