‘CAMP DARFUR’ EXHIBIT SHOWS EFFECTS OF GENOCIDE
Article by Julia Parmley, AS ’07 Photos by Sarah Simon
UDaily, DE
University of Delaware
nocide031307.html
March 13 2007
2 p.m., March 13, 2007–On March 7, the Rodney Room of Perkins Student
Center was transformed into a refugee camp. Five canvas tents formed
a semicircle in the small room, with signs identifying the genocide
and the date it took place. The last tent represented Darfur, with
the date "now" and a death toll of 400,000 and counting.
>>From 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., Students, faculty and staff were exposed to the
effects of genocide at Camp Darfur, a traveling interactive awareness
and education exhibit funded by the grassroots community Stop Genocide
Now. The all-day event was part of Smyth residence hall’s first annual
"Hunger and Homelessness Week," from March 5-10. Smyth Hall is a
part of UD’s Central Complex, whose residence curriculum is based
upon the concept of service learning.
Slide shows of refugee victims and an iTunes video about Darfur were
projected on the walls and information about the event and others
throughout the week also were available at information tables.
Junior Amanda Carl, exhibit organizer and resident assistant in Smyth
Hall, said she learned about Camp Darfur after attending workshops
about Darfur advocacy at the National Student Campaign against Hunger
and Homelessness Conference in Los Angeles in October 2006. She
contacted Stop Genocide Now and Gabriel Stauring, co-founder of Stop
Genocide Now, came to UD with the exhibit, which he takes to high
schools, universities and institutions around the country.
"I thought that Camp Darfur would be so amazing to have here at
Delaware," Carl said. "It would really impact people and really state
a message."
The exhibit took two hours and 15 volunteers to set up, Carl said,
adding she hopes the impact last for a long time.
"I hope people realize that Darfur is not the only genocide that
happened," she said. "There were many before it, and we’ve seemed to
not learn our lesson. There is an issue going on in Darfur, there is
a problem and we need to take action. We need to do our part, being
the largest group of people registered to vote in the United States,
to make change."
Stauring first set up Camp Darfur in April 2006 in Los Angeles. For
five days, 50 people, including his wife and two children, lived in 15
tents as refugees. The impact of the exhibit was so strong, Stauring
said, he began to travel with the camp around the United States.
Stauring does not ask for payment but accepts donations to keep the
exhibit going. For events in California, Stauring said he rents a
van to store 10 tents, but ships tents and stores them in luggage
for other locations.
Stauring said the exhibit makes an impact by placing Darfur in its
historical context. "You first see Armenia in 1915, then you walk
through to the Holocaust in 1938, Cambodia in 1975 and Rwanda in 1994,"
Stauring said. "You see it’s a series of genocides where the world
has failed. Right now we have a chance to do something about one that
is going on right now. Darfur is not history, it is something that
is going on today. It gives it the urgency that it needs."
Stauring said he first became involved with Stop Genocide Now in 2004,
and his commitment to the organization has steadily increased.
Stauring used to volunteer at the organization while working full time
doing in-home counseling for abused children and their families, but
a fellowship now allows Stauring to devote all his time to Camp Darfur.
Stauring’s commitment to Darfur also intensified with his trip to
refugee camps. In 2006 and 2007, Stauring traveled to the border of
Chad, visiting Darfur survivors and documenting his trip with photos
that are exhibited in Camp Darfur. "A year ago was somewhat safe,"
Stauring said. "I was able to see the camps running full force with
all the AID [Agency for International Development] workers and the
international aid getting in there."
Stauring was advised not to come back in 2007, as the Darfur violence
was now moving into Chad. Most of the AID workers were pulled out
of the camps, Stauring said, and refugees were not safe in their
own camps. "I could see the physical conditions getting worse and
the morale situation of the people as well," he said. "They had less
hope, now being four years that some of them have been there. I meet
some people that had just arrived as new refugees. The exact same
thing that happened four years ago, that has continued to happen,
is happening right now."
Although the U.S. government declared Darfur a genocide more than two
years ago, Stauring said the steps to protect civilians as mandated
by international law have not happened. The international community
must come together for the first time in history and do something
about an ongoing genocide as it’s happening, Stauring said, and not
just wait until it’s over and feel sorry about it.
"I think we just have to move from talk into actual action," he said.
"I really think if our government would make it a priority and put
pressure on other governments to act, that that would change the
situation. There are a lot of us raising awareness around the country,
but it’s going to take a lot more so our leaders know enough of us
care about it."
Stauring said international relations with Sudan and other countries
makes Darfur a very complex situation, but it is innocent civilians
who are suffering. "The people in the camps I visit are mostly women
and children, and they’re not a part of that complexity, they’re just
the ones that are suffering. I really think that’s what we have to
address. It’s just regular families that are suffering, so we have
to do whatever it takes to protect them," he said.
The world would want to stop the Holocaust if it was happening today,
Stauring said, and there is a chance to stop Darfur now. "I think
it’s very easy for many to say Africa has too many problems," he
said. "By seeing the history of genocide, you can see that it can
happen anywhere. It’s not about color, it’s not about where it’s
happening, it can happen anyplace. For the first time, I think we
have to make ‘never again’ mean something."
Senior Sarahanne Blake said she was struck by what she learned at
Camp Darfur. "It’s very eye-opening," Blake said. "I guess I didn’t
realize there were so many genocides in the last century and how huge
they were. You don’t really hear about them."
Camp Darfur at UD was sponsored by Amnesty International, Uganda
Untold and Student Anti-Genocide Coalition (STAND).
For more information on Camp Darfur, visit
[ e] or e-mail
[[email protected]].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2007/mar/ge
www.campdarfur.org/index.php?title=Main_Pag