Project Ignite will seek to enlighten Pepperdine students on the injustices happening in Burma. This large mainland country in Southeast Asia officially known as Myanmar has long been under the control of a military junta a committee of military leaders.
In fall 2008 students wore T-shirts saying “Keep Ignoring Burma as a reverse psychology tactic in support of Project Burma. As in many military-led countries, residents of Burma have been exposed to extreme violence, human trafficking and unrest for many years.
This year, seniors Rachel Ryon and Lauren Hartley decided to take the campaign to another level and came up with the idea of Lovemine — a collaborative effort to raise awareness of the social injustices in Burma. This inspiration came after meeting with the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a partner organization working with schools nationwide and internationally to push for a Commission of Inquiry in the UN into crimes in Burma.
The U.S. campaign for Burma is circulating a letter in the Senate about this Commission of Inquiry, seeking support from senators to help with their cause. From all of this work done directly with outside organizations, Project Ignite was born.
Project Ignite, an event that took place Wednesday, takes center stage at about 120 campuses, high schools and churches nationwide.
Those who attended saw a screening of Crossing Midnight and also took part in an advocacy portion, voicing their opinions via e-mail or letter to their respective senators requesting they sign the letter in the Senate. In an effort to improve the efficiency of the project, Project Burma added four other organizations— Partners Relief and Development, Free Burma Rangers, Eleho and Causecast.
We knew that we wanted this event to be a collaborative effort between all of them because we believe cooperation is better than competition and we can reach so many more people if we pool our resources and work together Ryon said.
Project Ignite was broadcasted out of Los Angeles via livefeed, so viewers could see all the happenings on the Internet. Lovemine organizers hope this will deepen a sense of unity.
Viewers will be able to send their comments and questions using a chat function on the Web site, further adding to the spread of information to those watching across the nation. By creating such a publicly involved system, Project Ignite hopes to grab the attention of senators all across the country with thousands of e-mails and voicemails from students and families concerned with the letter in the Senate.
Pepperdine’s International Justice Mission has played a major role in the event on campus, and spearheaded the night so Rachel, Lauren and company could direct their attention to the rest of the country.
We’ve organized this event in two months which is insane. We got to a point when we realized what we had gotten ourselves into and just had to give it up to God and say ‘Even if we have five schools that participate and learn about Burma it’ll be a success'” Ryon said. “God has totally blessed that and turned it into over 100 which is something we didn’t even think was possible.”
This will not be the only event from the new organization. Pepperdine has major representatives on campus who can help students get involved.
“This is our big event for the semester but we’re excited about what’s coming up in the future Ryon said. Hopefully even bigger and better than what we’re doing now.”
