Students for a Free Tibet is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual SFT National Conference to be held at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island from October 18-20, 1996. Much thanks is owed to the Brown Students for a Free Tibet chapter and others who have spent many long hours organizing this conference.

Students for a Free Tibet is growing rapidly. Since the Tibetan Freedom Concert held this summer, the number of students has grown to 1,300. We are certain, however, that many more are aware and involved with the Tibetan cause.

This year's conference will be about transforming awareness into action and is therefore heavily focused on providing activist training - political, economic, social, and interfaith. We will also be electing 2 student Regional Directors for each of the 6 regions across the U.S. in order to strengthen the overall SFT organization. These Directors will be responsible for coordinating, mentoring, and mobilizing within their regions. The Directors collectively will represent the decision-making body of SFT and will work closely with the National Office. We are all very excited about this direction and know that organization, coordination, and communication are critical to effective mobilization.

Workshops include:

Non-violence Training

Strategy of the Compassionate Economy

Interfaith

Tibetan Women's Issues

Education/Awareness Training

Coalition Building

Political/Lobbying Training

Building Bridges: East and West

We are also honored to announce that our Friday's keynote speaker will be Kalon Tashi Wangdi, Minister of Information and International Relations of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.

We are dedicated to mobilizing on all fronts this coming year. We understand how critical this coming year is given the situation in Tibet today. We will take it as a challenge to educate ourselves, our campuses, our communities, our politicians and corporations about the responsibilities that each face with respect to issues concerning Tibet and global justice as a whole.

And we believe it is important to do this together. Collectively there is energy and power. And we are especially excited about our continued work with Milarepa Fund. At the conference, the Tibetan Freedom Tour will be launched. Together, we will be going to schools and colleges throughout the East Coast and Midwest for about one month. This will only further add to the enthusiasm and awareness among young people in our country. Once again, the intent will be to translate awareness into action.