More than 2,000 Stanford students pledged to fast yesterday in a show of solidarity with the victims of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, raising $27,000 in the process.

For the event, organized by Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), participants agreed to fast all day or give up a particular food item. Some also donated to humanitarian organizations active in Darfur, including Doctors Without Borders. For each student participant, the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund donated an additional $5, which, according to the World Food Program, can feed up to 10 refugees. In addition, the Fund will match one to one all donations by Stanford affiliates.

Stanford STAND Coordinator Nikki Serapio, a senior, said that while not eating for one day does not sufficiently put a student in a refugee’s shoes, it is still an important gesture.

“Fasting is a tool for reminding ourselves that there’s a genocide on our watch: there are millions who are constantly hungry, thousands who have been gang-raped, an entire people who need NATO and UN protection now,” he said.

STAND organizer James Vaughan, a sophomore, agreed.

“STAND chose to fast as a way of acknowledging our lifestyles here and standing in solidarity with the people in Darfur,” he said. “It was also a way to advocate and spread the issue.”

Because the fast coincided with the month-long Islamic holiday of Ramadan, many students said they simply signed up because they were already going without food.

“I’ve been fasting for a month now, and it is very difficult because you don’t get anything in the morning to get you going,” said freshman Fahad Mahmood, who fasted.

Organizers said that the sponsorship of the Omidyar Fund helped widen the impact of STAND’s fast because of the Fund’s substantial financial base and established tradition of humanitarian aid.

“They’ve been an inspiring local leader in providing food and care to the people of Darfur — among other things, they’ve contributed over $1 million to the WFP’s essential programs in Western Sudan and Chad,” Serapio said.

Sudanese government troops and paramilitary organizations have been perpetrating atrocities in the nation’s troubled western region of Darfur since 2003. Despite international condemnation, Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, has remained intractable. At least 200,000 have died, according to a BBC report published Wednesday.

Serapio said he believes that the efforts of Stanford STAND can make a difference, but that a substantial policy change will be necessary to halt the killing.

“Initiatives like DarfurFast are valuable in themselves, but I think we should be clear that no level of humanitarian assistance will stop the worsening genocide,” he said. He urged students to call, write and meet with their congressional representatives in order to “change the policy calculus.”

“Someone like Senator Barbara Boxer has a huge part to play,” Serapio added. “She can push the Bush administration to impose targeted sanctions against Khartoum, and she can demand that the President help deploy a NATO rapid-response force to Darfur. But unfortunately, she and other senators aren’t talking about Darfur every week on the floor of Congress.”

Beyond Thursday’s fast, STAND has further plans for providing relief to the troubled region, including a nationwide campaign to raise awareness and collaboration with other California-based advocacy groups, Serapio said.

Vaughan added that the group has plans to take its campaign beyond the Bay Area.

“We’ll be trying to raise awareness among religious communities in Texas and, if successful, other southern states,” he said.

Students can get involved by visiting STAND’s Web site, www.ourpledge.org.