LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Rider University will sponsor its eighth annual celebration of International Week, starting Monday April 5 and continuing through Friday April 9 on the University's Lawrenceville campus. This year's theme will be the promotion of worldwide social awareness, and a distinguished Spanish journalist will be on hand to present his views on human rights in Africa.

The annual Oxfam Hunger Banquet, an International Week tradition, will be the major kick-off for the week on Monday, April 5, at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Center Cavalla Room. The banquet demonstrates the impact of hunger across the world and exemplifies that one out of every four people worldwide suffers from hunger. "All participants -- students and adults -- will get a chance to visually see the effect of hunger in the world at Oxfam," said Jamie Matteo, community and multicultural affairs commissioner of Rider's Student Government Association.

The week's keynote presentation will be given by Alfonso Armada, a renowned Spanish reporter. His program, titled "Human Rights in Africa at the End of the 20th Century," will be held on Wednesday, April 7, at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Center Theater.

Armada is currently the cultural and United Nations correspondent for the New York-based Spanish newspaper ABC. He previously worked for the Madrid newspaper El País from 1987 to 1999, serving as the paper's African correspondent since 1994.

An accomplished writer of Spanish and Galician poetry, Armada compiled a testimonial of his African experiences in a 1997 book titled Cuadernos africanos. He has also directed many plays -- including his own -- for the Madrid theater company Koyaanisquatsi, and is the associate director of the Spanish arts magazine, Teatra. An extensive exhibit of Armada's plays, play posters, and African publications will be on display in the lobby of Moore Library.

Other International Week events sponsored by individual University groups will be held throughout the week. For more information on the keynote program, contact Dr. Linda Materna at (609) 895-5592.

Rider University's Lawrenceville campus is located five miles south of Princeton and three miles north of Trenton on Route 206 in Lawrence Township, NJ. The campus is one-half mile south of exit 7A of Interstate 95.