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SGN Blog

Healing Hearts

I write this blog about Darfur to my three children, Boston 6, Capri 3 and Cayman 2. My desire is that through my writing, they can know me, know the world and learn how they can achieve anything in order to change it. To the reader, I hope by giving you a transparent look into […]

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SGN Blog

The Indifference of the World

I write this blog about Darfur to my three children, Boston 6, Capri 3 and Cayman 2. My desire is that through my writing they can know me, know the world and learn how they can achieve anything anything in order to change it. To the reader, I hope by giving you a transparent look […]

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SGN Blog This is Darfur

SGN Talks: “It’s a Bad Name”

Stop Genocide Now has the amazing opportunity to speak on a one-on-one basis with many survivors of the Darfur genocide. In the many visits to the refugee camps, countless people have come up to us to tell their stories, their opinions, and their experience of what it means to survive one of the most horrific […]

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SGN Blog

10 Things I’ve Learned

(in no particular order) 1. Being bright and intelligent can make you feel even more trapped and desperate, when you dream of higher education and a different future, and the camp walls close in. 2. Refugee camps, with tens of thousands of people each, are not supposed to be permanent places of residence, especially in an environment that cannot sustain them. […]

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SGN Blog

We Move, They Stay

I got up early to do some serious packing. Even after leaving communication equipment, soccer balls and clothing, and eating some of our food, we were still carrying with us five large suitcases, plus our heavy backpacks. Traveling heavy through eastern Chad is not something I would recommend to anyone. Well, traveling light in eastern […]

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SGN Blog

Storytelling

I haven’t had much of a chance to write anything since we arrived here in Chad. There has been so much to do, from always trying to get the best shot to trying to effectively convey what went on each day in a 2-minute video that won’t be too expensive to upload via satellite, since […]

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SGN Blog

Refugee Camp Dream

Mothers, fathers, and teachers have been telling me that they can only maintain hope because of the hope their children represent. While in the camps, they want their children to grow strong and educated, so that they can be the future of Darfur. They would tell me this back in 2005, during my first visit, […]

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SGN Blog

Our Internal GPS

The drive to the camp is bumpy and slow but not boring. I see women with long faces and wide-awake eyes, wearing bright red and riding on camels. They stare right at me without changing expression, as our car bounces by. I see a family of monkeys, not sure what kind. They arae small and […]

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SGN Blog

Do you remember your first?

If you type the word magnificent into a Thesaurus, in return you will get a list of adjectives that will describe my day. If you type the name Umbda into the Thesaurus, nothing will come back in return. However, the words that could be there are; amazing, leader, servant, savior, teacher, inspiring, courageous, moving, loving, […]

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SGN Blog

Why SGN/i-ACT? And more importantly, why Darfur?

If the second question has yet to be answered for you, I’d suggest reading the beautiful and moving words and images of “Why Darfur… Again?” However, for me, the first reason I emailed SGN asking if they had any need for a writer/editor was because it seemed like the best way for my writing to […]