The Truth About Darfur

Hey Mr. Mayo’s Class!

At this point I’m almost positive my friend Alex and I will be able to come next Thursday and Friday mornings to speak to you guys! We’ve been advocating for Darfur through our club, Students for Global Responsibility at Blair for a little over a year now. We both first got interested in Fall of 2006 when we participated in a student conference in Falls Church, Virginia. We were appalled by the graphic images we saw and stories we heard and immediately motivated into action. We’ve done tons of advocacy work, making big change. Right now, we are fighting to get a bill passed that would divest (or take away investments) Montgomery County’s 700 million dollars in public pension funds from the pockets of human rights violators. I’ll talk to you guys more later about why divestment has become the primary avenue for stopping the genocide… For now, I just want to stress how rewarding it is to know that you have made a big change in the world around you. It is hard work in the sense that it takes up your free time when you could be kicking back with a soda and watching TV, but not in the sense that organizing or participating in an event to raise support is difficult. In fact, it involves just 2 things: a willingness to sacrifice some free time; and willingness to step out of your comfort zone for the ultimate cause–genocide.

Mr. Mayo said you guys could write some letters and maybe even plan your own event. That sounds like a plan if I’ve ever heard one! I’ve been working with a lot of high schools around the county to raise support, but you would be the first middle school I’ve heard of. If you all are interested in an event, I can definitely help you out with tips and materials. Some options are: a mass call-in, a concert or talent show where you have to write a letter to get in and group lobbying (or setting up and talking to a law-makers in person). With social justice, youth is only an impediment if you let it be.

Ben

About 30% percent of my school did not know anything or even how to pronounce Darfur, and about 20% didn’t even care. What does that say to you? Kids don’t care? What that says to me is that we need to work harder then we are now. If we teach that 50% of middle school kids what the Darfur genocide is and what they can do to help, then that would make a huge difference. One kid at my school said “10 cents are gonna go to the organization, 10 cents are going to go to the workers and 5 cents are going to go to the people. How is that going to help?” while we were selling wristbands. Another student said ” That bracelet is going to get them two double cheese burgers at Mcdonalds!” And even a teacher said “Theres only 6 people I really care about in this world”  There are 2,000,000 million people not depending on their family or themselves but depending on us the save them.

The exploding walls project is about expanding our work out into the global community. Just because our due date has come we feel like we should still expand our knowledge about such a serious topic. I think kids can make a big difference.  Our goal is to make a difference. Our knowledge has been seen from so many people its crazy. We have gottten hits from people in British Columbia all the way to Qatar. We will not stop our fight for the starving and dieing people in Darfur.

Hey guys! It’s Jeremy, I’m here just telling you that I found this awesome twitter website, where third graders are also raising money and trying to help darfur, they have a podcast that you can listen to and alot of other cool things. Another thing, is that incredibly, these third graders raised 6,000 dollars for darfur! Visit the site, here’s the link! http://w3.shorecrest.org/%7Ethirdgrade/GR3/Darfur/index.htm

       Darfur is located in the region of western Sudan.One side is composed of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed. The other side is composed of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality movement. On June 16, 2007, Union Nation General Ban Ki-moon said a statement in which he proposed that the slaughter in Darfur was caused at least in part from climate change, and that it derives, from man-made global warming.  Military Intelligence, the air force, and the Janjaweed, armed Baggara herders who the government had begun directing in repression of a Masalit uprising in 1996-1999.  The violent conflict, in Texas, has driven more than 2 million people from their homes. The fighting is spilling over to neighboring Chad, where 200,000 Darfur refugees have found shelter.

From the savedarfur.org webpage

How does the Save Darfur Coalition help the people of Darfur?

We utilize media outreach, public education, targeted coalition building and grassroots mobilization to pressure policymakers and other decision-makers in the United States and abroad to help the people of Darfur.

Nik is from the period 6 darfur group. They had made a website instead of a blog and he wanted to give us that information. We will try to get him to write for us again and answer all of your questions.

I am a guest writer from another Darfur group, my name is Nik.  This month has been a very rough month in Darfur.  22 trucks caring food to Darfur residents have been attacked and stolen.  This might cut off food to 2 million people in Darfur.  The UN says that their big contracting companies are refusing to send in food to Darfur.  There are still 18 drivers missing.  This serge of violence has started at the same time that the UN took control over Western Darfur. 

 In my opinion this is no coincidence that all this violence has started at the same time that the UN took control over Darfur.  The people doing this really did not want the UN to take control and they are trying to stop it.  Almost 2 times as many World Food Program (WFP) trucks have been hijacked this month than the previous four months put together.  Keep in mind that the month is not over yet.  Right now the rate is about one hijacked truck a day, so by the end of the month there will be 31 hijacked trucks.  Hopefully, the UN will find a way to get food to the Darfur citizens but it is not looking good.

Answer to one of the comments

First I would like to thank everyone that commented on my post, second i am going to answer one of the questions asked to me.  The question was: How would you change the delivery system of food to Darfur residents to make it more effective?  This is a very difficult question and i am not sure that i can give a great answer right away, so I will continue to answer this as time passes.  I would have people deliver the food that are well armed and protected.  Unfortunately, they do not have enough troops or equipment.  Noureddine Mezni, the spokesman for the U.N. mission said “we are still lacking the aircraft, equipment and troops that are crucial for us to be present everywhere in Darfur and improve the situation,”.  I think that the U.N. needs to send all of its force and those countries that are fortunate enough not to have this going on, such as the United States, need to send more troops and equipment.  There is no point sending a little amount of troops because as you can see you end up losing even more.

Link to the AP article

Refugees International is an organization to save the refugees in darfur. Here is the link. The United Nation is warning us that Darfur could be the worst human crisis in Sudan scence 1998.  Response to this crisis has been slow and ineffective. Even though there has been a wide spread of help the government of Sudan and its allies on the UN security council have blocked any punishing authorization of masterminding the violent campaign in Darfur. The women get the most discrasment in this crisis. “As you have raped me, please don’t leave me alive… kill me with your gun” begged Almina to her rapist. “May shame kill you” was the reply of the Janjaweed militiaman who raped her on July 4th. The women in darfur are so  courageous. They have a strong scence of resistance. These women are determined to survive and give themselves more tasks in their camps. For example, to get fire wood. When they leave their camps they give themselves the fear of getting killed and raped by the Janjaweed. But they still get things to let their family live and eat. Rape survivors are a reflection of shame of the Rape act. Also rape survivors are shamed to come back to their camps.

Rape has become one of the biggest crime against women in Darfur. It has given another way for the Janjaweed military to attack darfurians again. The janjaweed has already taken people out of their homes. The Women in Darfur must keep collecting fire wood, water or working from the fields. While doing this the women in Darfur and also the children are in jeopardy of getting raped, beat or death. Hundreds of Rapes have been reported and are still increasing. Yet there are still more then hundreds of women and children that have and can get raped but won’t have a chance to report it. In a place where rape is a big place the victims are often disliked by their own families and town. These ungrateful women have been forced to leave their town and also get punished for prohibited pregnancy as a consequence of being raped.

Who are the bad guys?  Thats a good question.  In the situation in Darfur the most common “bad guys” are a group called the Janjaweed.  This name literally translates into: man with a gun on a horse.  The janjaweed are a mostly arabic speaking nomadic tribe that come from a camel hearder background.  They have been at odds with darfur rebel groups for a long time and are taking their agressions out on the people of Darfur with destruction, murder and rape.  It has been thought that the Janjaweed are working on behalf of the Sudanese government, fighting the rebels.  Although this has not been stated by either group, it is a thought on everyones mind though.  Can you imagine, a government hiring mercenaries to attack and rape their own people?