Social Issues subject of weeklong focus

Two social issues took center stage on campus the week of Oct. 29-Nov. 2. Hunger Awareness and Race Equality were the subject of special emphases.. Nearly 900 million people in the world go hungry and 15 million children in developing countries die each year. Sixty percent of these deaths are caused by hunger and hunger related diseases such as malnutrition. Every five seconds, a child dies from hunger. That means that every time a person takes a breath, a child has taken their final breath because of hunger.

These astonishing facts were on display on pizza boxes around the entrance way to the Maddox Student Activity Center on Monday to kick off Hunger Awareness Week sponsored by Global Outreach, a campus group that is focused on world issues such as hunger, poverty and AIDS. During the kick-off at the MSAC, students participated in a Die-In event by lying on the ground pretending to be dead to help attract attention to the cause.

"The Die-In is similar to smoking kills campaign and is used to call people's attention to world hunger issues," said Jim Wilson, Director of Global Outreach.

Several CLWs to raise hunger awareness took place throughout the week including the film "Silent Killer" on Monday night. "Silent Killer" features "compelling stories and characters [that] raise and answer questions in a powerful, exquisitely photographed documentary that will get people talking again about an international crisis that keeps haunting the world," said one movie review.

The battle against world hunger has been going on for many decades. On the movie's website it said, "in 1963, President John F. Kennedy declared war on hunger, causing the "Green Revolution" to dramatically increase food production and prevented the widespread famines that many observers of that time predicted. However, today the commitment is not so clear."

Thursday, Thomas Van Burg from Second Harvest Food Bank of Knoxville, was the keynote speaker in Thursday's CLW to talk about hunger in East Tennessee. This event was to show people that hunger is not only a third world country problem but it's right here in East Tennessee.

"We hope that this event will provide the campus with general awareness of hunger and encourage people to go see and experience for themselves the third world hunger needs to become an ambassador for world hunger," Wilson said.

Students and faculty can experience world hunger first hand by volunteering to go on the Spring Break mission trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

"When people go out on the mission trips, hunger hits home because it's not about statistics anymore but about a real human being that they have met and in most cases became friends with," said Wilson.

Race Equality Week also took place on campus this week. This event was sponsored by Bonner Scholars, Harambee, Student Activities, Amnesty International and Films For Change to promote understanding and recognition across the racial and ethnic groups of East Tennessee.

"The goal for this week is to increase awareness that there is still not equality and that people are still treated unfairly based on their race," said Ashley Bryant of Bonners.

Dr. Jacquelyn Bragg was the speaker for the first event of the week. Dr. Bragg is the principle of the Green Magnet Math and Science Academy in Knox County and spoke about 'Ethnicity and Leadership in the 21st Century.'

Other activities included Mix It Up, an event encouraging students to sit with someone they had not met while eating in the Caf, the viewing of the film, "A Day Without A Mexican", and Mix It Up Part 2, a concert that featured performances by New Nation, Constance Mack, Laura Tauscher and Gary Ricker.