By Tate Smith
As part of Civic Engagement Day on April 6, the Bluffton University PEACE Club presented issues around the world in countries such as Canada, Japan, Russia, Yemen and Albania.
Most of the presenters were international students who are native to those countries.
Professor of education and Spanish and director of global education, Paul Neufeld Weaver. Photo by Olivia Daugherty.
Paul Neufeld Weaver, director of Global Education at Bluffton, brought to light the issues striking Yemen today. The base of his project was the ongoing humanitarian crisis where 20.7 million people are in need of aid due to the civil war within the country. Even with a recent ceasefire, 4 million people have been displaced from their homes and their lives, he said.
Weaver suggested a few things can be done to help out this struggling country. A sense of awareness around the world would help them receive aid they so desperately need. Another thing he suggested was to send peace keepers over to resolve the conflict among the people.
Weaver shared his opinion on how the U.S. can help, “Making the people aware of this issue and the U.S. sending humanitarian aid to the people.”
Risa Fukaya in the Commons. Photo by Olivia Daugherty.
Senior Risa Fukaya, a social work major from Japan, talked about the issues her country is facing right now.
The main issue she pointed out was the natural disasters. Recently there was a M 7.4 earthquake that hit off the Japanese coast near Fukushima. According to Fukaya, 129 more earthquakes have been reported in the area in the three weeks since.
Rona Stafa. Photo courtesy of Rona Stafa
Senior Rona Stafa from Albania talked about her country’s issues. The Russia-Ukraine war is affecting people in Albania by causing prices to go up with the people not being able to afford basic things, she said.
“The country is losing tourism, can’t get food and is unable to get oil due to Russia being the country’s supplier,” Stafa said.
Stafa said she is glad that her family is in the U.S. even as her friends are in Albania protesting the war.
“I feel anger about the war,” Stafa said.
Russia was the next country talked about by student Olga Penkovskaia. She discussed how bad the economy in Russia is right now stating the Ruble currency is down 30%.
As the economy goes down so does the morale of the people. Since Russia has started the war with Ukraine, at least 750 people have been arrested due to them protesting the war, Penkovskaia said.
“It’s a sad time for my family, the media is covering up a lot of things that Russia is actually doing,” Penkovskaia said.
Deborah Yoder, a junior English major and peace and conflict minor. Photo by Olivia Daugherty.
Student Deorah Yoder from Canada described the issues the people of her country are facing. From Jan. 28 to Feb. 20 of this year, protesters disrupted traffic in and out of the capital.
Yoder said the people were protesting a mask mandate Canada made for all truck drivers. Yoder also talked about other protests around the country over vaccine mandates and how many of those protesters aren’t even in the trucking industry, but instead made the issue more broad than trucking.
