Conor Grennan will speak about child trafficking in Nepal at the second University Lecture of the semester this Tuesday night.

The event, called “Little Princes: Changing the World through Volunteering and Storytelling,” is sponsored by Hendricks Chapel and the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel.

Grennan worked at the EastWest Institute for eight years before departing in 2004 for a trip around the world. During this trip, Grennan volunteered at the Little Princes Children’s Home in the village of Godawari, Nepal, according to the University Lecture website.

Grennan left his lucrative job to volunteer in Nepal and has an amazing story to tell, said Esther Gray, University Lectures coordinator, in an email.

“Conor discovered first-hand exactly how interconnected we are globally and how one person can make a huge difference in the lives of children — and vice versa,” Gray said. “Sitting behind a desk didn’t prepare him for seeing and witnessing first-hand the issue of poverty and child trafficking, as well as the effects of war.”

While volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home in Godawari, Grennan learned that most of the children were not orphans as he had previously thought, but victims of trafficking.

After returning to the United States, Grennan learned that child traffickers had taken seven of the children he had befriended in Nepal. Grennan moved to Kathmandu, Nepal, and founded Next Generation Nepal, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reuniting trafficked children with their families, according to a University Lectures Series flier.

Grennan has successfully reconnected more than 350 families that were separated by child trafficking, according to the flier.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and New York University Stern School of Business, Grennan is the president of Next Generation Nepal and author of “Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal,” according to a March 1 SU News release.

VPA is sponsoring the event because it relates to its communication and rhetorical studies program, and administrators feel Grennan’s storytelling background fits nicely with their academic program, said VPA Project Director Kathleen Foley.

Grennan is also a good example of someone who developed a career from his personal passions, she said.

In preparation for the lecture, Syracuse University Food Services served a Nepal-themed dinner Feb. 28.

The menu on Thursday included carrot ginger soup, Nepali cucumber salad, Tarkari (vegetable curry), Kukhura Ko Masu (chicken Tarkari curry), Daal Bhaat (lentils and rice), Chana Masala (spicy chick peas), Chain Ko Takari (curried mushrooms), Sang (curried spinach), basmati rice, pistachio ice cream and mango Lassi, said Lynne Mowers, secretary to the director of SU Food Services, in an email.

This is not the first time SU Food Services has done this, Mowers said. Specific meals are planned to coincide with University Lectures.

Mowers said SU Food Services officials attempt to incorporate a themed meal when a University Lectures Series speaker’s topic has the potential to fit with a theme.

Published on March 5, 2013 at 12:24 am

Contact Caroline: cstrange@syr.edu