Save Darfur – A letter to raise awareness
My wife has been very involved with the effort to stop the abomination that is occurring in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Recently she attended a Darfur rally in Morristown, NJ and earlier today sent out a letter to friends across the internet which I will share with you here.
“Devils on horseback” is the literal translation of Janjaweed, a militia group covertly supported and funded by the Sudanese government, which has been targeting Fur, Zaghawa and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur*.
Let me narrow this down so you can get a better idea of what’s going on… Genocide! It’s sickening to imagine that any human being would even consider this sort of atrocity acceptible but here we are — 65 years after the Nazis began performing horrific acts of “ethnic cleansing” during the Holocaust — watching it happen again.
So, what can we do, here in our big, powerful, free country? We need to raise awareness, get involved, and tell our leaders that something must be done, and continue to donate and help in a relief effort. Here’s the letter my wife sent out today…
Hey everyone-
I attended another rally yesterday about Darfur. I can’t imagine that people don’t know about Darfur, but sadly there are still some people who don’t!
Darfur is a region of the Sudan, in Africa. At this very moment a horrible atrocity is being comitted against the African Sudanese people by their own government. The Sudanese government with the help of a militia group called the Janjaweed, are attempting to wipe the black Sudanese people of Darfur from the face of the earth.
To date over 400,000 people have been killed. Millions – MILLIONS of people have been displaced from their villages and are living in displaced persons camps in other African countries. In these camps they are dependent on peacekeepers for everything food, clothing, shelter, medicine. Children get no education. Even when this is all over there is nothing to return to. The Janjaweed have burned all their villages. Darfuri citizens are terrified for their lives, women are raped and people are being enslaved & tortured.
It is hard to believe that in 2007 a genocide of this proportion is happening. We are all too familiar with this type of occurrence – remember the Holocaust – the world vowed that something like that would NEVER happen again! Remember Rwanda – the world said enough is enough. Well people we need to wake up because it is still happening! Personally, I think this is unbelievable, because not only is a genocide taking place, but the whole world is sitting by and letting it happen. We have TV documentaries, news segments, newspaper and magazine coverage of Darfur and yet we don’t have people in their on the ground fighting back to help protect these innocent people.
I heard a lot of powerful things yesterday – that it takes a free person to help a person who is not living in freedom. That it takes the voice of a free person to lend a voice to the voiceless. I think back to the people of the world who knew that the Holocaust was happening but chose to sit back and do nothing – I’d be haunted knowing that I didn’t do my part to let the world know what was happening. This is why I choose to be an activist for the people of Darfur – people always say but I’m only ONE person – what can I do?
Well….. here is the answer to “what can I do?”
1 – Raise awareness – everyday for the past year and a half or so I’ve worn my green “Save Darfur” wrist band. People always ask me about it and I’m happy to tell them. I also have a collection of Save Darfur clothing that I wear and they serve as GREAT conversation starters. I wore one aboard the Spirit of St. Kitts this past December and had a boat full of people ready to go home and contact their congressmen!! I also have a Save Darfur lawn sign. (All of these things are available at the SafeDarfur Store)
Living in this Internet generation we can spread the word quickly to raise awareness – the easiest way? Forward my e-mail to everyone you know and ask that they keep it going. Read more about it online (I’ll provide you with plenty of links).
2 – Show support – the people of Darfur NEED to know that people care about them, and that they are NOT forgotten. So when you hear about a rally or an event GO and be a part of it. Show the world that people know what is going on and that WE DEMAND ACTION!
3 – Write to congressmen, senators, your local government officials, ministers whomever has an ear and let them know that we the FREE citizens of the United States can’t sit by and watch this happen. Let them know that we DEMAND action – to put an end to this intolerable suffering and cruelty. By signing up with savedarfur.org you can get on their mailing list and they make it easy for you to pass along information to the President and local officials.
LINKS:
Save Darfur Coalition:
http://savedarfur.org
Help Darfur Now: Founded by three high school students in NJ this group raises money and awareness for Darfur. Tell your children about it. Chapters of Save Darfur Now can be started in any school
www.savedarfurnow.org
If you live in the Northern New Jersey area this groups holds events. Sign-up for their mailing list to be in the loop.
www.njcoalition4darfur.org
Darfur Info:
www.darfurgenocide.org
Unicef’s Darfur Page:
www.unicef.org
Human Right’s First:
www.humanrightsfirst.org
Simon Deng – Former Sudanese Slave & Activist
www.iheu.org/node/1539
Sudan Freedom Walk
sudanwalk.iabolish.com
iAbolish- the American antislavery organization:
iabolish.com
Pictures from the April 2006 Washington D.C. Rally
Pictures from the March 2007, Morristown NJ Rally
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I’m passionate about being able to do SOMETHING to help stop this genocide. I want to have a good answer to the question, “What did you do to help?” President BUSH said that this wouldn’t happen “on his watch” well it is, and we need to do something to help!
Please forward this to everyone and anyone you know. Please encourage them to forward this on and to be sure to sign up on the savedarfur.org site to get information and to be part of mailings to our elected officials. If we take a stand TOGETHER we can make a difference!!
Thank you for your time!
Krista Vics
* Information gathered from Wikipedia.org
