SMPL PRESENTS "LOST BOYS OF SUDAN AND THE ONGOING CRISIS IN DARFUR"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date:       March 1, 2007
Contact:  Julie MacDonald,  Public Services Librarian, (310) 434-2644

The past and ongoing human rights crises in Sudan are the topic of discussion in a special program at the Santa Monica Public Library on Sunday, March 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium, 601 Santa Monica Boulevard.

The Human Rights Watch Student Task Force will present information about the current humanitarian crisis in Darfur.  According to Human Rights Watch, at least two million people in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, have been displaced and at least two hundred thousand have died since the conflict began in early 2003.  Benjamin Ajak, a “Lost Boy” of Sudan, will speak about his experiences when, at the age of five, his village was attacked and he began a harrowing journey across his country to reach a refugee camp.  The co-author of They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky:  The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan, Benjamin Ajak was one of twenty thousand such boys who trekked across several thousands of miles and faced peril along every step.  A screening of the Emmy-nominated documentary Lost Boys of Sudan will follow.  This 2004 film is the story of two Sudanese refugees and their extraordinary odyssey from Africa to America.

This program is free and open to the public. The event is presented through a grant from Actual Films and Principe Productions.  Seating is on a first-arrival basis. For more information, visit the Library’s website www.smpl.org, or call (310) 458-8600.

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This page was last updated on 03/01/07.