Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) of Massachusetts is hosting Sean Carasso, founder and chief executive officer of Falling Whistles, a non−governmental organization raising awareness about the use of children as soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this Saturday.
Carasso will be speaking at 1 p.m. in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room on Saturday as one of the stops on his ongoing tour.
"Two of us are traveling on a tour … going from school to school, coffee house to coffee house, speaking up about what's going on in the Congo," Justine Porter, Falling Whistles intern, said. "The idea is just to spread as much awareness as we can."
Junior Megan Kono, an ATO member, began planning the event after hearing about Carasso and Falling Whistles' story and cause.
Carasso stumbled on the story of the "whistle boys" while in the DRC, where he met five children who were escaped child soldiers.
According to Mallory Benedict, an education and visual media intern for Falling Whistles, Carasso found out from these previous child soldiers that children too small to carry guns were made to go to the frontlines with whistles.
"Boys like them, who are too small physically to hold a gun, are sent out to the battle frontline with only whistles," Benedict said. "They blow whistles to attract the enemy soldiers, take the first line of bullets and act as a human shield for the boys behind them."
Hearing this story, Carroso started Falling Whistles to address this problem and raise awareness.
"We're working to end the war in Congo and taking small steps to end it," Benedict said. "We're rehabilitating children through a program right now … We sell these whistles, and the proceeds go to the rehabilitation program. The whistles are a symbol of our protest, and we're asking people to be whistleblowers for peace in the Congo and call out for peace in its absence."
Kono learned about this story recently and felt compelled to take action, especially on finding out that Carroso would be in Boston this weekend.
"When I read the story, I was very, very moved; I don't know how you can't be," Kono said. "I just thought it's a long shot, and I'm one person, but one person makes a difference … I started talking to people and got ATO involved."
"[Falling Whistles] is an organization [Kono] heard about over spring break and was really excited about it," junior Joseph Lessard, president of ATO, said. "She approached me … and ATO is always looking for new organizations and philanthropy we can get behind and give our support."
Lessard hopes that this event will be the beginning of a long−term relationship.
"This is a new organization to the campus; it's great to bring something new and hopefully foster some sort of relationship between the Tufts community and the organization, so in the future they can really see Tufts as a big supporter of their message," Lessard said.
Porter echoed this, expressing her excitement to be expanding the organization's presence in Boston.
"We don't have a big group of supporters in Boston right now … so we're really excited to be coming and getting to know students, making friends, making connections, hearing others' stories and what kinds of things students are doing," Porter said.
Lessard noted that Delta Tau Delta (DTD) fraternity has a similar partnership with HOPE for Ariang, an organization focused on the "lost boys" of Sudan — children displaced by the civil war in the country.
DTD's events with HOPE for Ariang have involved the organization's founder Gabriel Bol Deng, one of the lost boys himself, sharing his experiences and story. Lessard believes Carasso's talk discusses a similar issue from a different perspective.
"It's similar to the Sudan lost boys cause … It's a nice complement to that," he said. "It's a Westerner giving a Western take on the situation … It's nice to do two points of view; they really are complementary and touch on different aspects."
The event will be free of charge and will feature raffles for various prizes and refreshments.
