"Tonight thank God its them, instead of you!"
Like so many people, I have been guilty of being a bystander who watches the news coverage of the genocide in Darfur and then overting my eyes and carrying on with my own life
But I can no longer stand by and turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the atrocities that are being allowed to continue in Darfur.
This isn't a normal plea for help for the people of Darfur who are suffering at the hands of their government. It was born out of living in a country where so many people have so much that they can afford to drop money in the streets and not pick it up!
I watched with great interest the reports on CNN during June 2005 when Anderson Cooper was reporting from Niger. I couldn't believe that while we lived in a world with so much, that we could stand by and watch other human beings live in such terrible conditions. These people don't only have no idea where there next meal will come from or whether they will make it through the next few days to eat it.
After that broadcast I became more and more aware of not only the starvation that was effecting that part of Africa but the genocide that was taking place in the Sudan.
Most people have no idea where Darfur is, what is occurring there or why. We see 2 minute news items on the ABC, Fox, BBC and NBC news channels covering the very basics of the situation, then the commercials kick in or an item on Nicole Richie being arrested for driving under the influence or Michael Richards or Mel Gibson making insulting remarks about a group of people and that becomes so much more interesting....... because its in 'our world'.The charred remains of a village in the Darfur region of Sudan
But there's another world, a world in which most of us can not even imagine living. Where every day is a fight for survival. Not just because there is a famine but because the government of the country is working against the very people who live there. A government who supply arms to the militia who systematically destroy villages, burn crops and houses and then murder men, rape women and then kill them and their children.
A starving child in Darfur
History and Geography of Darfur.Sudan is the largest country in Africa with a population of 37 million. It shares its borders with Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Chad, Libya, Congo and Central African Republic. Darfur is a Western region of Sudan. It is just over two thirds the size of Texas. It is mainly an arid plateau, with volcanic mountains and sandy soil. Part of the Sahara Desert and the Nile River are located here. The official language is Arabic and the main religion is Muslim. Sudan gained its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956. Since then it has been mired in a series of conflicts, one of which lasted 21 years until a peace treaty was signed in January 2005.
The region of Darfur is populated by some 7.4 million people. Since early 2003, Sudanese government forces and "Janjaweed" militias have waged war against two loosely allied rebel factions - the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, both located in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. It appears that the government forces have waged a deliberate and systematic campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against civilians who come from the same ethnic groups as the two rebel groups.
To date the United Nations have refused to call the atrocities, "genocide". Kofi Annan has only referred to the situation as "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." Sadly, the fighting has seen the deaths of many thousands of people and rendered more than one million homeless. Many have fled to remote desert locations making the delivery of shelter, food, water and clothing a challenge for aid agencies.
The genocide in DarfurIn addition, the agencies say that they do not have enough money to effectively respond to the crisis. The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that over $400 million is needed by the end of the year to respond to the most urgent needs. The situation is so serious that the U.S. Agency for International Development said recently that, without help, one million people may die, and
that 300,000 will probably die no matter what is done. In addition to this more than two million people have been displaced by the ongoing violence plaguing the region. Even those who have not been directly affected by the violence are still in need of aid as the local economy has collapsed and thousands are on the brink of starvation.
A group of starving displaced refugees in DarfurIn recent months many celebrities have ventured into the area to highlight to the rest of the world the atrocities that are occurring there. Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Bono, George Clooney and his father and several journalists who hope to bring the world's attention to the plight of the people of Darfur.
As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof remarked recently, " Perhaps the most striking distinction in the history of genocide is not between those who murder and those who don't, but between 'bystanders' who overt their eyes and 'up standers' who speak out".
Its easy to see why we would divert our eyes. No longer does the sight of a starving baby, a raped woman or a village raised to the ground stir feelings of humanity in us. We've all seen it too many times before. But with everything that is unpleasant, if we can find a fun way to achieve a result, the effort is never so great. As Mary Poppins said, 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down'. Take 'Band Aid' and Live Aid'. We all loved seeing our favourite stars giving it their best in the name of charity which in turn made us give our best. Millions of pounds and dollars came flooding in to the charity.
Well, in a very small way I too have found a way to make giving to Darfur a more worthwhile experience.
When I first arrived in America from the United Kingdom, (Southampton England to be exact), I was surprised to see how many pennies were just lying on the sidewalks, on shop floors, at the candy counter, in the movie theatres, and just about anywhere that people reach into their pockets.
So last January, 2006, I set myself a mission to pick up all the dropped pennies that were overlooked by the Natives. To my further surprise it didn’t just stop at pennies. I was picking up 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent pieces, $1 bills and once I even found a $20 dollar bill.
The final coin collection January 4th 2006, $53.16c.
All through 2006 I have kept a separate box in which I collected all the ‘lost pennies’. Whenever I went out with friends who were visiting from England I would be a constant source of embarrassment to them as I picked up all the coins I saw. But eventually they would be scanning floors in an effort to boost my funds.
I decided that I would collect the coins for one year and then at the end of the year I would count them up and donate the total to a charity. But as the year progressed and the amount increased I began to think about how much money could be raised if hundreds, even thousands or millions of people were to take the time to pick up these lost coins.
When I totaled up my stash of coins they totaled $53.16c. I thought if that could be multiplied by 5,000 other people ever year we could have a total of $265,800. There are now 300,000,000 people in the USA, if just 1,000,000 people collected lost coins think of the money we could raise for Darfur. If every person managed to collect the same as I did it would total, $53,160,000.00.
My partner and I also had a bet on who could guess the closest to the total amount of coins collected in the box. If I won he promised to put a further $10.00 into the collection. I won!
While at a local mall one night, waiting to go the movies, in just half and hour I picked up 65 cents. Not a lot of money! But, in a nation of $300,000,000 people, if on one day a week just $1,000,000 people picked up 24 cents that would equal $24,000. That makes ‘Picking up Pennies’ seem like a worthwhile pastime.....
So I chose to donate my coins to the charity supporting aide to Darfur. Darfur has been referred to as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The Horor of a Refugee Camp in Darfur
The face of genocide in Darfur
George Clooney and his father on recent visit to Darfur.If you are touched by what you have seen and read and watched on the television please click on the link below to find out how you can help the people of Darfur. Maybe you too could start picking up pennies or find another way of raising money for Darfur. As it says in the BandAid song, 'Tonight thank God its them instead of you!'
http://www.SaveDarfur.org.
www.darfurgenocide.org/darfur.php
