About Mark Hanis
Mark Hanis, the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, was a student at Swarthmore College when he read a newspaper article about violence in Darfur, Sudan.
Shocked that genocide was occurring in full view of the world, Hanis and fellow students decided to take action.
They started an organization called the Genocide Intervention Fund, with the
goal of demonstrating to average citizens that they could directly affect the situation in Darfur. They also hoped to compel policymakers to be more responsive to civilian suffering. With the help of advisers from the academic and policy worlds, they turned their ideas into reality.
In 2005, Hanis and his colleagues transformed their student group into a non-governmental organization, the Genocide Intervention Network, based in Washington, D.C.