UTA students raise awareness, money for Darfur
http://www.star-telegram.com/arlington_news/v-print/story/550017.html
By EVA-MARIE AYALA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
ARLINGTON — The freshmen at the University of Texas at Arlington are wrapping up monthlong efforts to bring attention to genocide in Darfur.Each year the Freshman Leaders on Campus group takes on a community service project.
This year, its members want to raise awareness about the brutal conflict in Darfur and raise some funds to help. Thousands are dying or fleeing to neighboring Chad.
Freshman Jennifer Fox of Waxahachie said she did not know about the issue before. An eye-opening experience for her was seeing artwork from Darfur children.
“Children here mostly paint flowers or butterflies,” she said. “These children were painting men on horses with guns.”
In western Sudan militiamen known as janjaweed have pillaged through villages shooting at random and setting huts on fire, according to reports. The government has also sent bombers and army troops that have terrorized the region, according to news reports. A State Department report this month estimates that 200,000 people have been killed.
“It’s just amazing work these kids have done to bring awareness to everyone here,” said Molly Alfers, sponsor of the Freshman Leaders on Campus.
Learning more
Each freshman English class is reading Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, based on his father’s experiences in the Holocaust.
FLOC members said Darfur is a modern-day example of the genocide detailed in Maus.
Students started the awareness project at the beginning of March with a showing of The Devil Came on Horseback, a documentary about a former U.S. Marine captain, Brian Steidle, witnessing the atrocities there.
They will raffle off donated artwork at an April 3 panel discussion to raise money for Steidle’s nonprofit group, Global Grassroots.
The discussion begins at 7 p.m. in Room 100 of Nedderman Hall and will include Rick Halperin, director of the Southern Methodist University’s Human Rights Education Program; Alusine Jalloh, director of UTA’s Africa Program; Victoria Smith, a human rights activist who has worked in Chadian refugee camps; and a Darfur refugee.
Students said they will not stop spreading the word about Darfur once the month is over
The Darfur crisis
What: The Sudan area of Darfur has suffered human rights abuses that include government and militiamen torturing, beatings, killings and raping black Africans, according to a State Department report released this month.
Impact: Reports are that more than 200,000 have been killed during the five-year conflict and more than 2.5 million people displaced.
Program: UT-Arlington will have a panel discussion at 7 p.m. April 3 in Nedderman Hall.
Tents of Hope
Student groups are painting a tent on campus that will be part of a national Darfur awareness event in Washington, D.C., in October. Supporters say communities in about 115 cities will send their painted tents to the event. The tents will be sent to Chad for refugees to use. For more information, visit www.tentsofhope.org.
How to help
UT-Arlington students are raising money for Global Grassroots, which provides aid to women in Darfur, Rwanda and South Africa. Raffle tickets, sold for $1, give a chance to win donated artwork. T-shirts promoting awareness are $10. For more information, call FLOC representatives at 817-272-2293 . For information about the nonprofit, visit www.globalgrassroots.org.
