Andover Townsman, Andover, MA

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December 12, 2007

Students take stand for Darfur

Students at Andover High School were busy last week raising money and awareness to help end the genocide in Darfur.

Members of the high school chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur organized a three-day "fast" to help people in Darfur, Sudan.

Rather than pledge not to eat for a day, students pledged to give up a food or drink that they have on a daily basis. They then donated the money they would have spent on this item to the cause. Students were also able to pledge to give up something they do every day, such as watching television.

All the money raised from the event is going to STAND International, which will donate the money to the Genocide Intervention Network's civilian protection program on the ground in Darfur, according to student organizers.

Darfur, an area about the size of Texas, is the largest country in Africa. To stop an insurgency mounted by rebel groups | the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement | the Sudan government has increased arms and support to local tribal and other militia, which have come to be known as the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed have been accused of wiping out entire villages, and murdering, torturing and raping hundreds of thousands of people.

Andover High STAND president and senior, Cindy Huang, got the idea for the DarfurFast from STAND International.

"I think it raises money in addition to being a symbolic gesture," said senior Ariel Twohig of the event. "It makes people aware of what is happening.

"I always felt like it was important [to help Darfur] and I didn't know what I could do," explained Twohig, vice president of the AHS chapter. "And then I found out that there was a STAND position available."

Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning, school STAND members staffed a table in the foyer of the high school. Freshman Hannah Chiodo was one of the students helping people sign pledges and make donations.

"It's a wonderful cause," said Chiodo. But, she adds, it is also one "that not a lot of people know about."

AHS STAND members hope the event helped to change that. They will continue to publicize the message of the DarfurFast by stringing the signed pledges together and displaying them.

"I think it's really important," said freshman and club member, Pratiksha Yalakkishettar, another club member helping out at the table. "It [genocide] has happened before, but we need to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The AHS chapter of STAND was founded about two years ago. Its members organize events, go to rallies and are working on a documentary. Recently, they distributed donation jars around town.

The AHS chapter is part of the larger, international organization. STAND at all levels is entirely student-run. The goals, explains Huang, range from sending people to Darfur, to sending people to Washington, D.C. to pressure politicians.

"It's not only about making money," she said. "There's a huge awareness aspect to this campaign as well."

Barriers to finding information often make it hard to know what is really happening daily in Darfur, said Huang.

"If you ask anybody right now, there's no absolute answer. There is this invisible wall erected by the Sudanese government preventing journalists, humanitarian workers and people who are interested in investigating events in Darfur from coming in," she said. "The other thing is the media. It [the genocide] is not really covered in the media so you have to go dig for it."

The United States labeled the situation in Darfur a genocide over three years ago. Since the genocide began, as many as 400,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced, according to the STAND Web site.

Huang hopes that DarfurFast will allow people to step into the shoes of someone living in Darfur, if only for a moment. By giving up something, students are able to relate a little better to the people living in Darfur who do not have food or other essential resources.

"The thought is that you sacrifice something really small, or big, to make a statement that you do care about what's happening in Darfur," she said of the event. "It speaks a lot about humanity as a whole, where we can do that for each other. ... Especially for a country that's halfway around the world."





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