DALLAS (SMU) — Andrew Blum of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) will be at SMU April 23 to teach a morning grant-writing course for the community and later in the day present a program on human rights, humanitarianism and peace-building in South Sudan. Both events, sponsored by SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program, will be free and open to the public.

The grant-writing workshop, offering strategies to develop and present winning grant proposals, will be 9 a.m.–noon at SMU’s Hughes-Trigg Student Center, Promenades A/B. A reservation is required by e-mailing saikman@smu.edu or calling 214-768-8347.

The USIP is hoping to “broaden the number of U.S. organizations that apply for and receive grants to support their important work,” says Blum, the global conflict management center’s director of learning and evaluation. The organization, which has given grants to peace-building organizations for more than 20 years, has headquarters in Washington, D.C., and field offices in Baghdad, Iraq; Kabul, Afghanistan; and Islamabad, Pakistan.

“Supporting Africa’s Newest State: Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Peace-Building in South Sudan” will be 5:30–6:30 p.m. in McCord Auditorium, 306 Dallas Hall. The USIP has been dedicated to supporting peace in Sudan, and now South Sudan, after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005 to end one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest wars. Blum has worked intensively with civil society organizations in Sudan and South Sudan since 2010. “Although South Sudan is now independent after a peaceful referendum, the problems in Darfur remain unresolved, and many believe the two regions are on the brink of a new war,” he says.

“What’s happening in Sudan should be of interest to everybody,” says Embrey Human Rights Program Director Rick Halperin. “For 30 years they’ve experienced nonstop war, starvation and disease. It’s also where the first sitting head of state has been indicted as a war criminal.”