Benefit for War-Torn Rwanda Draws 300 : Relief: Woman tells of losing 17 family members in carnage that has claimed hundreds of thousands. The Santa Monica College event raises $2,500.

About 300 people packed an auditorium Saturday at Santa Monica College in a show of support for a war-torn country thousands of miles away.

The Rwandan benefit concert, organized by a Rwandan student and members of Operation USA, a local relief organization, took in about $2,500 from the $10 admission and additional donations.

“I’m surprised. This is a very good turnout,” said Richard Walden, president of Operation USA. The Santa Monica fund-raiser for Rwanda was the first held in Los Angeles since the war began in April, Walden said. In the two months since reports that an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people have been killed in the country, Walden said, donations for Rwanda have been few. “We realized we had to do grass-roots organizing to raise money,” he said.

A group of dancers from Rwanda, Uganda and Malawi performed, as did the choir from Brookins A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles. Actors Mike Farrell and Danny Glover spoke about the urgency of the situation in Rwanda.

“We are all in pain, and feel powerless in a sense, when assessing what is going on in Rwanda,” said Glover. He encouraged the audience to write letters to local congressional representatives, saying, “We must let our voices be heard.”

The audience was visibly moved when dancer Laetitia Rwiyegura, who lives in Long Beach, spoke about her 17 family members who were murdered back home. “I lost my younger brother, two sisters and their families,” said Rwiyegura, 36. “The more I talk about it, the more I want to cry.”

Sharon Ostreicher of Hollywood said that while she isn’t an activist, she wanted to come down and donate money. She said the program was educational, and she could relate to the suffering of the young woman who spoke about losing her family.

“My father is a concentration camp survivor,” Ostreicher said. “I could relate to what it means to be threatened with death because of the race and religion you belong to.”

Another descendant of Holocaust survivors, Esther Krisman of West Los Angeles, said she was bothered that more isn’t being done to help the people in Rwanda. She added that she feels a sense of helplessness.

“I started crying when I heard that girl (Rwiyegura) speak,” said Krisman. “But I don’t know what else can be done about this. There are so many similar tragedies going on in Bosnia and Haiti. It’s all so overwhelming.”