Growing up in Sudan, Ithar Hassaballa didn’t realize the need that was around her.

“You don’t really pay attention to poverty,” she says. “I never realized how bad it was until I went back last summer.”

That experience, going back to a place she hadn’t been in eight years, when she was 10 years old, planted a seed in her mind.

She wanted to do something to help the poor people of her home country, whose problems stretch beyond the well-publicized genocide in Darfur.

So Hassaballa, a senior at Free State High School and president of the school’s Multicultural Achievement Club, helped organize the club’s first fundraising event. It’s called “The Night of Amal (Hope): Giving Hope to Orphans in Sudan.”

The event, from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday at the Free State auditorium, 4700 Overland Drive, will feature food, music, dancing, poetry and fashion from around the world.

Poor but strong

Sudan often is the focus of benefits in the United States, but it’s fairly rare for someone with a personal connection to the country to be involved.

Hassaballa says she met orphans when she was in Sudan last summer with her family. She still has family living in Khartoum, but she was made aware of the poverty when traveling in other parts of the country, though she didn’t go to Darfur.

Orphans are a problem in Sudan because of severe weather conditions, diseases such as AIDS and malaria, and the conflict. It’s culturally taboo to send children to an orphanage, so residents take care of friends’ children if the friends die.

According to the organization SOS Children, there were 1.3 million orphans in Sudan in 2003. That’s 9 percent of all children there.

Both government and nongovernment agencies provide money to the surrogate parents to help them care for the orphans.

But Hassaballa says despite the staggering numbers, the people of Sudan – and especially the orphans – don’t seem defeated.

“When I went there, people just seemed poor, but nobody complained,” she says. “You could see it in the people’s eyes – they’re poor, but they’re strong.”

Personal connection

The approximately 40 members of the Multicultural Achievement Club, who have family backgrounds representing about 20 different countries, were moved by hearing Hassaballa’s personal story of going to Sudan.

“A lot of people jumped on the idea,” says senior Eejay Imafidon, whose family is from Nigeria. “We’re excited to be helping out.”

Peggy Sorenson, the Free State social studies teacher who serves as the club’s sponsor, says Hassaballa’s personality helped sell the group on the idea for the fundraiser.

“Ithar is just an incredible person,” Sorenson says. “This has been her passion to try and get this taken care of for her people.”

Sorenson says, living in Lawrence, students of all backgrounds have a chance to learn firsthand from peers whose families recently emigrated to the United States.

“We have, perhaps, that special connection to the outside world more than you might see in other locations,” she says. “We have kids who live in the summer in Paris or Beijing, so they have a foot in both worlds.”

If the fundraiser goes well, Sorenson says, she expects it to be a yearly event. Students from Lawrence High School also are participating.

“It’s good to celebrate the diversity but also to have a focus” for service, she says.

As of late last week, the club already had raised $1,000 for the orphans. Members are hoping for at least $5,000 through Friday’s event and other fundraisers.

“I feel so grateful, getting to help out,” Hassaballa says.