The UCLA Chapter of FORGE presents a showcase of African Refugee artwork, interviews, and speakers.

Thursday, June 8, 2006
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Tom Bradley International Center
417 Charles E. Young Drive West
UCLA campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

You are invited to join the UCLA Chapter of FORGE (Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment) on the night of Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 7:30 PM for an inside look into the lives of African refugees living in Zambia. This multi-faceted experience will showcase the artwork and oral histories of several African refugees, as collected by FORGE members last summer in Mwange Refugee Camp and abroad.

Included in the artwork is a piece entitled "Window Period" by a 24-year old Congolese refugee named Patrick.  The caption reads, "AIDS kills people of all categories," and he explained that the "Window Period" is the time after contracting HIV when one is yet unaware and symptomatic, and thus at high risk of spreading the disease.  Another piece being displayed is by a teenage Congolese refugee named Mwembe.  When asked to draw something important to him, he drew his depiction of war.

African Refugees: Putting a Face to the Crisis will also feature a panel of speakers discussing the current situation for African refugees, and a short clip of the FORGE documentary created by a FORGE alumnus.

Refreshments will be served and parking is available for $8 in the Dykstra/De Neve parking structure, adjacent to the Tom Bradley International Center, UCLA.

Campus venue:
The Tom Bradley International Center is located at 417 Charles E. Young Drive West at the corner of Young Drive and Strathmore; phone 310-267-1981.

To locate the parking structure and building and transportation options to UCLA, visit www.ucla.edu/map
and/or visit http://www.transportation.ucla.edu/maps/eventmap/eventmapnew.html
click on Tom Bradley Center and also on PDF for larger view.

From the 405 - exit 405 at Wilshire East; turn left onto Gayley then turn right onto Strathmore and take an immediate left at the light onto Charles E. Young Dirve West.  At the first light, make a left into the De Neve Turnaround and follow the road to parking lot Dykstra/De Neve (DD).

About FORGE:
FORGE Objectives:
-  To forge global connections between students in the developed and developing world
-  To create sustainable networks for the sharing and transfer of resources, ideas and understandings
-  To implement community service micro-projects in refugee camps, contributing to refugee education, livelihood, and well-being
- To encourage leadership and empower life-long participation in public service, both within the refugee population and amongst the FORGE volunteers

Advocacy Program:
The Advocacy Program works to raise public awareness and strengthen political will so as to transform the conditions that create poverty, war, and disease in the first place. Recognizing that true change must start at home in our personal choices, our local communities, and our nation's policies, the Advocacy Program seeks to raise public awareness of critical global issues and build up the political resolve to address them. Through grassroots campaigns and events, FORGE Advocates seek to personalize and humanize the experience of extreme poverty and marginalization so often faced by refugees and other ordinary human beings in extraordinary and intolerable circumstances. By empowering college students to educate and make a difference in the hearts and minds on the home front, the FORGE Advocacy Program is contributing to a massive paradigm shift towards compassion and unity – an imperative shift of consciousness that will prove critical to the survival of the human race.

For more information about FORGE and organization projects, contact: 
Diana Essex
Advocacy Coordinator
The FORGE Program
805 512 0645
Dianaessex@gmail.com

Cost : Free and open to the public; parking is available for $8 in the Dykstra/De Neve (DD) parking structure.

Sponsor(s): FORGE. Information on non-ASC events is posted for informational purposes and does not reflect opinions of or endorsements by African Studies personnel.