A lone, white refugee tent sat Wednesday on the Plaza of the Americas, adorned with red hearts and displaying the word "peace" in languages from all over the world.
Students from the Jewish Student Union and UF Hillel placed the tent on the plaza to remind students of the genocide and subsequent displaced civilians in Darfur, Sudan.
The sponsoring groups offered passersby stencils to decorate the tent with messages of peace and liberty.
Carly Fleisher, a UF Jewish studies junior, organized the project through a national organization called Tents of Hope.
The tents will be on display at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from Nov. 7 through Nov. 9 and will later be sent to house refugees in Sudan.
Fleisher said many people have heard about Darfur, but few know the extent of the problems there.
"When people think about genocide, they say 'I'm sorry,'" Fleisher said. "You can feel bad, but there's still thousands of people dying."
She said her main goal was to educate and move people to action.
"You can do something, whether it's just raising awareness by wearing a shirt," Fleisher said.
The Jewish Student Union offered a tie-dye activity as well, with participants stenciling phrases such as "Save Darfur" on their T-shirts.
Jewish Student Union President Jason Attermann said the group chose tie-dying to attract people as well as spread the message about Darfur. The event drew about 70 people, Attermann said.
Katie Latham, a UF freshman, said the tie-dying was what interested her initially, but once she saw that Darfur was involved, she was even more excited to participate.
Latham said she liked how students could speak directly to the refugees through the tent.
Emily Korszen, also a UF freshman, said she noticed the tie-dye as she was checking out the Hare Krishna lunch for the first time.
"It made me think there's a lot more going on than what is in front of us," Korszen said.
