The recent debate over terming the conflict in Sudan "genocide" doesn't matter because awareness of humanitarian violations should be the focus, Sudanese refugee Deng Yak said.

"Genocide happened in Sudan in many places that the world [doesn't] know," he said in a speech Saturday night.

Yak (senior-science) served as keynote speaker at "Secrets of Sudan: Reflection of Life and Loss in Darfur," an event organized by five Penn State students hoping to make a difference.

Yak discussed what he called "the day that changed [his] life forever." On that day, when he was three years old, his village in southern Sudan was attacked. Yak was separated from his parents and forced to become one of the Lost Boys of Sudan -- a group of orphaned refugees that trekked through Africa to find refugee camps.

This story served as an introduction to a screening of "Darfur Diaries" -- a film that reflects on life and loss in Darfur, Sudan. Amnesty International helped co-sponsor the event by purchasing the rights to the film.

"Darfur Diaries," a film set in western Sudan, features the individual voices that give the region of Darfur a voice. The film chronicles the Arab versus black conflict in Sudan.

Before Yak's speech, State College residents and Penn State students performed music, spoken word and poetry.

Matt Halley, a State College musician and Penn State alumnus, kicked off the evening playing a few songs on the piano and the guitar. Adrienne Byrne accompanied him on the flute. Halley performed shoeless, with just socks covering his tapping feet.

"I like to bring in that intimate feeling no matter where you are," he said. "I want it to feel like people are sitting in their living room."

Laura Rochon (sophomore-English) performed a spoken word piece called "My Life," which she dedicated to the 34 million widows in India. Her piece discussed three options she said a widow in India has: to burn with her husband, to marry her husband's younger brother or to live in self-denial.

"It was trying to raise awareness about the situation because I don't think it's getting nearly as much media time as it should be. It's trying to get the word out there," Rochon said about the evening. "It's not just about Darfur but about humanitarian rights in general."

Parallels were also drawn between conflict in Darfur and genocide in Cambodia.

Paul Pat (graduate-English), whose family fled from Cambodia to the U.S. in 1984, sang a song about his aunt. When she came to America, her sponsor family forced her and her daughter to live in the family's basement. The family cashed checks meant for the refugees for themselves, Pat said.

Jamila Sabares-Klemm (freshman-musical theatre) read two poems -- one about child labor and the other specifically about Sudan. Another poet, Isaac Kassis (junior-biology), recited a poem about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Reflecting on the evening, event organizer Rozina Gilani (sophomore-sociology) said, "[My main goals were] raising awareness and realizing whether or not we want to call it genocide, the grave humanitarian violations being committed need our attention."

Another event organizer, Ben Ross, said these goals were met. "I think it was very successful. We got a bunch of interested people," he said. "It went very smoothly, and I think we opened up some eyes."

The HUB-Robeson Center LateNight gave the students $500 from the student activity fee. Event organizers donated half of the money to UNICEF and the other half to the organization Doctors Without Borders.

"We lost a lot of people," Yak said. "But still, we can save a lot of lives."