With two major crises attracting worldwide attention, former Manhattan Borough President and social activist Ruth Messinger came to Penn looking for students who want to help.
Current president of American Jewish World Service, Messinger focused her talk on the tsunami relief projects and the human rights crisis in Western Sudan.
Messinger spoke of the importance of grassroots organizations in raising emergency relief to people in developing nations. She stressed dissatisfaction with large-scale relief efforts as the reasoning for her support of individual participation. She cited the recent tsunami crisis as an example.
AJWS is currently addressing relief projects such as water purification, rebuilding shelters and identifying dead bodies.
"It has been exactly one month since the tsunami and about three weeks since it has essentially disappeared from newspapers," Messinger stated. "Eighty percent of the Sri Lankan fishing industry was destroyed ... it's fishing season, and the [fishermen] are terrified of going back into the ocean."
Messinger particularly emphasized the organization's Save Darfur project in Sudan due to the lack of attention it receives from the international community.
"The brutal violence and forced displacement of more than one and a half million people have resulted in at least 100,000 deaths by the government-backed militia," she said.
Messinger related the crisis to that of the Jewish community during the Holocaust.
Delivering her speech at Steinhardt Hall -- Penn's main Jewish community center -- Messinger stressed the world should "never again" let atrocities be ignored.
"You cannot retreat to the convenience of being overwhelmed," she said. "One person can make the difference."
Attendees noted the motivation provided by Messinger's speech.
"I've never heard the relationship between service and policy change expressed so clearly ... it was inspiring," College senior Rita Axelroth said.
Others echoed the sentiment.
"She truly conveyed the idea of empowering college students," College junior Rachel Rosenthal said.
Messinger's organization is a non-profit group with a stated mission of alleviating poverty, hunger and disease around the world, regardless of race, religion or nationality.
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