Wednesday night, students learned how wearing a whistle around your neck can help a cause across the globe.
Falling Whistles at Penn brought six members of Falling Whistles — an advocacy group based in Los Angeles — to speak in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. They spoke about the ongoing conflict in the Congo, which according to their video has killed approximately 5.4 million people. The group got its name from the child-soldiers who are too small to carry guns and march into battle armed with only a whistle. These boys, who blow their whistles to scare the enemy, are “human barricades.”
Yves Muya, a native Congolese and a member of Falling Whistles, managed to escape the country.
“I remember coming home and Mom and Dad were packing everything they could so we could go fast,” he said. “We ran to Zambia. I was 10 or 11 at the time.”
He and his family of seven then moved to a Malawi refugee camp, where they lived in a single tent. They once had to wait in line for three days for their monthly rations. Eventually, his father decided to sell half of the family’s food in order to get enough money to leave. They made it to Durban, South Africa.
Finally, Muya’s parents told him the stories of those left behind in the Congo. “Some of my friends had to watch their moms getting raped in front of them,” he said. “That was a genesis for me. I wanted to end the war in the Congo.”
In Los Angeles on a scholarship, Muya met Sean Carasso. While travelling in the Congo, Carasso and his friends had stumbled upon an encampment of adult soldiers torturing child soldiers who had run away from rebel armies to what they’d hoped would be the safety of the National Army. They called every organization they knew to get help and ended up staying with the children for eight hours.
When Carasso returned, he started Falling Whistles. The group finds that wearing whistles around their necks starts conversation.
“We don’t have all the answers, but we’re not going to quit until we see the end of this war,” Muya said.
College sophomore Russell Abdo thought the “personal part was really powerful … I definitely have a better understanding of [the conflict].”
Penn students have also taken up the cause. Sindhuri Nandhakumar, a College junior, co-founded Falling Whistles at Penn and organized Wednesday’s event, which drew a crowd of about 30 students. “We go in knowing it’s hard to bring peace to the Congo … but we go in wanting to try,” she said.
Laura Schmalstieg, a Falling Whistles member, explained an easily accessible initiatve. Their iPhone application, FW Faces, stamps “I WANT PEACE IN CONGO” on pictures people take of themselves. These pictures are faxed to the White House.
Sonali Sanyal, a College senior and member of Amnesty International, said, “I thought it was good in the sense that it wasn’t just talk — there were actual steps.”
Falling Whistles member Joy Rheman had a caveat about the group. “It’s not about pity or guilt for Africa,” she said. “If you’re not free, I’m not free.”
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