Camp Darfur hosted by ‘Iolani Students

I have been working with Camp Darfur and host groups for several years now. Students, communities, faith groups and all around activist rock stars have all helped bring the camp to their community. Camp Darfur at ‘Iolani was by far one of the most meaningful and impactful on the local community that I have been involved with. Twelve students, not in a club, or class, or who even knew each other six months came together to first work on a video.

Wanting to do more, they brought Camp Darfur to their campus. This now tight-knit group of students hosted over 1200 students, teachers, and community members during 2 days of Camp Darfur. They created individual name tags with an individual Darfuri for every visitor. They gave overviews of each genocide, discussed the children’s drawings, and gathered more than 700 signatures for both their Senators and President Obama. Here is one poem from a student:

I’m running through the jungle, fleeing, scared of the gun,
but when your whole country’s after you to where can you run?
I’m irate; my mind state is an angry attitude
at the false hope preached to me in empty platitudes.
At every single latitude, bullets fly through the sky.
Horseback attack forever burned in my mind’s eye.
I cry, why did I survive when the gun spat?
But it don’t matter cause I’ll die when they come back
mix feelings, hate, sorrow, anger and confusion,
is that God laughing at me or just the blood I’m losing.
Hallucinations, I see millions who don’t care;
they continue on with their lives completely unaware
of the things I’ve witnessed. You’ve seen it I’ve lived it:
my wife and children burning alive in a demon’s visit
and no one will ever hear about me when I die.
I’m just a lost scream in the statistic of this genocide

(written by Junior High student, Matt)

Erin writes in a reflection, “One of the most outstanding moments was when a jock and his friend were visiting the tent and were not really paying attention and by the end of me talking to them, they were both emotional. I could tell that they felt guilty for their ignorance and lack of taking action. After they looked at the photos for a few minutes, the jock turned to me and said, “What can I do to help?” That may not seem like much, but that meant the world to me. Our mission of Camp Darfur was to educate people about the genocide in Darfur and to see a high school jock, who knew nothing about the genocide, become a member of humanity, who thoroughly cares about the situation in Darfur, was amazing.”

Download Erin’s full reflection and others’ here. Read another poem by a ‘Iolani student.

        

Cathedral HS – St. Cloud, MN

Local Activism – Armenian Sorority Sisters and Camp Darfur

Last week kicked off five straight weeks of Camp Darfur on campuses and in communities from CA to Minnesota and all the way to Hawaii! Three years ago, hosting Camp Darfur was how I got hooked into the SGN community. It was at an event I helped organize back in Portland, OR with the Unitarians and the Portland Coalition for Genocide Awareness. We aren’t as busy as we used to be with the Camp when I first started in September 2007, and we ship it the long distances we used to be able to travel, but it’s still a core part of educating and raising awareness about genocide.

This past week the camp was hosted by an Armenian Sorority, Alpha Gamma Alpha, at the University of California San Diego. They partnered with the Jewish Fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and the Cambodian Student Association to educate their campus for an entire week. Tomorrow, April 24th, is the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Yom HaShoah, Holocuast Remembrance Day was Sunday, April 11th, and other commemoration and remembrance days span the month of April which is becoming known as Genocide Prevention Month.

With all the programs and initiatives that SGN and i-ACT contribute to, sometimes Camp Darfur can be time consuming. Working with the UCSD group of students re-inspired and energized me for the next three weeks of travel with the Camp. They reminded me of the importance of having groups host the Camp, and make it their own to educate their peers. Without students, like those at UCSD there would be no hope for humanity to end genocide. But as long as they are working, I am here to support them.  Thank you Nare and her Sisters!

April is Genocide Prevention Month

 Stop Genocide Now is working with several California-based groups to support events that both commemorate based genocides and take action to end humanity’s worst crime, genocide. It is deeply saddening to think that so many horrible crimes find their way onto the calendar in April. What is worse, these crimes span more than a century of our history as humanity. Please take part in commemorating the millions we have lost because one group felt superior to them, and do your part by acting to help prevent future genocides. It begins with all of us saying, believing and working for “Never Again.”

Edina High School Hosts Camp Darfur October 6, 2009

‘To spread knowledge is to spread peace’. Those were the words inscribed by means of a Sharpie onto the inside of a linen tent. The message, surrounded by hundreds of other thoughtful messages, was inscribed on the canvas tents of Camp Darfur. Edina High School hosted the traveling exhibit on Monday, October 5, 2009. “Learning about past genocides sparked my interest in becoming more aware involved, in current world crisis,” says Jen Choi, a senior at Edina High School (EHS). Students were encouraged to ask questions and participate in short discussions before continuing on to the next tent. Seniors Shara Mohtadi and Emma Weisberg led the organization of the event, and they also reside over their newly founded STAND chapter. “Students are not only the leaders of tomorrow,” says Mohtadi, “but of today.” Students came out more aware than ever before, as many admitted to never having heard of the Armenian or Cambodian genocides. “If we can even change the perspective of one person,” says Weisberg, “Then it’s all worth it.” Hours of organization, two tents lost in transit and six hundred student audience members later, it was most definitely worth it.

Reflection by Edina High School Leaders Shara Mohtadi and Sasha Rieland

Camp Darfur was part of several events in Minnesota hosted by World Without Genocide, University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and part of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer International Conference.

Why I do Camp Darfur – VISA HS students re-Inspire Me

I have been organizing and hosting Darfur events and action campaigns since I first heard Ruth Messinger from AJWS speak at Portland State University in Spring 2005. I have been traveling with Camp Darfur since September 2007. I can’t even count how many presentations I’ve given or conversations I’ve had over these years. Like many, I am tired and I wish I didn’t have to give anymore because peace and justice have reached our friends.  Last Friday I rediscovered why I do what I do.

So often I tell people that I continue to take action for the people of Darfur, but I also continue this work to empower the next generation of leaders to take control of their future and the future of our world. The students at Vaughn International Studies Academy in Pacoima, CA reminded me that Camp Darfur still has the intense impact to inspire an entire school and move them to action.

Students ran the entire day. They had prepared for 6 weeks. Putting together slideshow presentations for Armenia, Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur and food rations. Each group gave 5-6 presentations each period for 5 periods. One student, Oscar, took on the role of explaining the panels with drawings from Darfur children of the attacks on their villages. He poured his heart out and brought me to tears. He got everyone to pull our their cell phones and text Secretary of State Clinton. Administrators were touched, and the middle school was invited last minute because the principle was so proud to see his students passion channeled into such an event.

Before we had left the students had already brainstormed ideas to get more of their student body involved and decided that they wanted to bring Camp Darfur back in the fall and open up to their parents and the rest of the community. Normally Gabriel and I do something during Camp Darfur, but on this particular Friday instead of me standing in front of students trying to inspire them, I was re-inspired by VISA High School students.

Thank you.

Students Write for Darfur – Citizen Journalism

We meet thousands of students every year at universities and high schools around the country! Many are affected by the faces and stories of the Darfur refugees that we have met. Our hope with Camp Darfur and our presentations is that the students involved will be moved and empowered to take action. Here are a few examples.

Adam Sensenbrenner, a student from Appalachian State Univeristy in North Carolina, wrote in his Holocaust Seminar Dollar Paper:
“In a time of political and economic change it is important to remember our duty as American citizens. As young people we can make a lasting impact on the persecuted cultures of the world. We are the advocates for those less fortunate. We must be the voice of concern for those forced to be silent. The world may turn a blind eye to the citizens of Darfur, but with the combined efforts of the American citizens and our leaders we can end the genocide of Darfur.”

Adam understands not only the urgency, but also the power that we hold. We can make change.

Last Friday, Gabriel and I spoke to a collection of Journalism students from four South Bay High Schools here in California. Journalists competing in the News, Opinion, and Editorial Cartoons listened and asked questions for up to an hour. In 30 minutes they produced well thought out articles and sketches. You can view and read the results of the 2009 Write Off! There is even one about our old friend Ahmet.

We will soon post the final, edited versions!

Brandeis Camp Darfur – Boston, MA

On Wednesday November 12, four large boxes arrived in the student union office at Brandeis University. The next morning members of the Brandeis STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition chapter began assembling the contents of these boxes into large tents. By the time three tents were assembled, the fifth box had arrived.

The tents were assembled in the Shapiro Campus Center. Many students and professors pass through this area at some point throughout the day. A large portion of these people stopped by to visit the tents. In addition Mark Auslander, a professor from the anthropology department at Brandeis, and Sabina Carlson, the education coordinator for STAND gave inspiring speeches. The tents were up for most of the day to raise awareness and spark action to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Camp Darfur at Brandeis was a great success!

Danielle Myers, STAND

Camp Darfur Returns to Idaho

Last week the University of Idaho Center for Volunteerism and Social Action got in touch with Stop Genocide Now in hopes of bringing the Camp Darfur tents back to the campus as it was such an eye opening event last year.  We arranged a FedEx pick-up and within a couple of days five large boxes arrived.

I felt a bit overwhelmed at first as only a couple of us arrived in the morning to set the tents up between classes.  However, I was quickly inspired by the number of students who stopped to ask us what we were doing which led into several great conversations about the hundreds of thousands of Darfuri people who have been murdered and the millions that have been driven out of their homes.  I was even more inspired by the fellow students who stuck around and volunteered their time to help us set up the tents.

One thing that really stuck out and I keep going back to is the reaction one girl had after she went into the Darfur tent.  She was astonished that this was going on and she had heard nothing about it.  It really took me back that after five years people are still having this big surprise.  I started to realize that it had been only a year ago that I knew nothing about the genocide in Darfur.

The few minutes of coverage the media provides on the lives being destroyed in Darfur is not early enough.  It is up to people like you and me to let others know.

Camp Darfur

An interactive awareness and education event that brings attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and gives individuals the opportunity to discover their own power to make a difference. This traveling refugee camp raises awareness and examines Sudan’s Darfur region and its humanitarian crisis – genocide – by placing it in historical context with Armenia, Holocaust, Cambodia, and Rwanda. Camp Darfur empowers communities to raise their voice and take action for the individuals of Darfur.

Check out what others have said about Camp Darfur below!

Camp Darfur in Hawaii

Living on an island, it’s easy to forget that there is a world out there in need of our care and continued consideration. As part of the Dream for Darfur torch relay event in Honolulu, Camp Darfur was able to bring that sense of reality to the participants of the event, as well as many curious students at the University of Hawaii campus. Through the use of powerful visual images, personal stories from victims and historical accounts of five genocides including Darfur, guests were able to learn and gain a better understanding for the continuing violence that occurs globally when we forget the past and ignore the present. The tents, which were designed to illustrate the simple living conditions of the displaced victims of the Darfur genocide, were covered in signatures from past Camp Darfur participants, and guests of all ages were able to send their own personal message to the victims, creating a more personalized experience. Participants were so pleased, and many thanked us for giving them the opportunity to truly see the violence that too often seems to have become background noise in the news media. Several students were so affected by what they experiences that tears welled in their eyes, and all they could do was ask, “how can I help?” Katie-Jay and Gabriel, thank you so much for sharing your incredible vision and stories from Chad and giving the people of Hawaii the opportunity to feel what they only have had the opportunity to read about.

Shahrzad Nouraini
Hawaii Coalition for Darfur

Pictures from Camp Darfur Hawaii