CANTON -- A SUNY Canton student club is holding a series of activities to protest the injustice of human trafficking, including a silent march and a presentation by a former child soldier and “Lost Boy” of Sudan.

The college’s International Student Activist Organization (ISAO) has invited Gabriel Bol Deng, the founder of HOPE for Ariang, to the college. There will be a screening of Deng’s documentary “Rebuilding Hope” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, in SUNY Canton’s Kingston Theater, followed by a presentation by the former child soldier.

“The club members invited Gabriel because child soldiers are another form of human trafficking,” said the ISAO’s advisor, Sabel Bong. “He delivers a very positive message about overcoming all odds.”

Deng was 10 years old when a North Sudanese Murahileen militia led an attack on his village of Ariang in South Sudan in 1987. He embarked on a dangerous four-month long journey, crossing the Nile River, and untold miles of desert. He survived famine and disease during his perilous journey to a refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Deng moved to Syracuse in 2001 as part of the Refugee Resettlement Program and attended Onondaga Community College and Lemoyne College. Upon returning to Africa, he founded the HOPE for Ariang Foundation as a vehicle to help rebuild Ariang after years of devastation.

All events during the Human Trafficking Awareness week are free and open to the public. A complete schedule is available online at http://www.canton.edu/news/index.php/2013/03/trafficking/.