STAND President Dave Anians fasted on Wednesday to remind the campus community of a problem people around the world face every day — hunger.

Anians, along with other members of STAND, fasted and passed out fliers in the MLK Commons on Wednesday to raise awareness about hunger problems in Sudan and other countries. STAND is an NIU chapter of a national student-led division that works to prevent and stop genocide.

Emanuel Vinson, sophomore political science major at Kishwaukee Community College, participated in the fast. He wants to join STAND when he transfers to NIU in the fall.

“I’m thinking about how fragile my body is and reflecting just on all the things I take for granted,” Vinson said after he had been fasting for 17 hours. “This is a small representation of what hunger is like. Even that is a lot to think about.”

Anians said the group used fasting as a “symbolic gesture” to inform others about how Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has banned humanitarian aid from coming into his country for years.

According to the website for the activist organization United to End Genocide, if humanitarian aid groups continue to be denied entry into Sudan, over 500,000 people could be negatively affected by near-famine conditions. Violence between Sudan’s armed forces and rebel groups has threatened food supplies and made it difficult for people to grow food.

Anians said STAND wants people to be informed not only about the hunger problems facing Sudan, but also the worldwide problem of hunger. One of the facts on the fliers STAND handed out stated that 925 million people worldwide don’t have enough to eat.

“We don’t want to just talk about Sudan and ignore the rest of the world, because hunger is a huge problem,” Anians said.

Manuel Montalvo, sophomore anthropology major and STAND member, said it’s important for the campus community to be knowledgeable and care about people in other countries who are suffering.

“We’re all in this human experience together, even though distance separates us,” Montalvo said. “As cliché as it sounds, we’re all one. It’s important for people, and especially younger generations, to get involved and informed and to help in any way they can to help the world be a better place.”

Montalvo said some people don’t get involved because they think it takes too much time or they don’t have any money to donate. All it takes is sharing information by doing something like fasting so that there is a “chain reaction” and eventually people will take action to diminish world hunger problems, he said.

Montalvo said fasting was an “eye opener” for him and the other members of STAND.

“It’s almost a reflection to see how just 24 hours can produce some sort of suffering and it raises compassion for our brothers and sisters in Sudan,” he said.