In the five years since the first major conflagration that sparked the genocide in Sudan's western state, many people may have grown tired of hearing about the genocide in Darfur. Yet it is overwhelming, nonetheless, for how does one stop a genocide in its tracks? Where the United Nations has failed, where the United States has stumbled, where the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been frustrated and where the African Union has had its hands tied, how on earth can students "save Darfur?"
The answer is: Where the United Nations has failed, where the ICC has been frustrated and where the United States has had its hands tied, students are, in fact, the greatest hope we have to protect the people of Darfur.
And on Dec. 5, students will have the chance to save even more lives in Darfur than these powerful entities have saved. Students will have a chance to save a life for the price of a latté. That chance is called DarfurFast.
In refugee and Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps, Darfuri families must gather firewood for cooking in order to feed their families. If a man leaves the relative safety of the camps, he may be killed by the Janjaweed militias. If a woman leaves the camps, she may be raped by the militias. Thus, each day, a conscious decision is made among the lesser of two evils, and it is the women who are sent out to risk rape each day in order to gather firewood to feed their families.
But there is still hope to protect the women of Darfur: an organization called the Genocide Intervention Network and its Civilian Protection Fund, which protects displaced Darfuris. The Fund is one of the few organizations still doing work on the ground in Darfur when most others have pulled out due to instability and violence. It has developed comprehensive, effective and cost-efficient strategies for protecting lives.
For $1 a day, the Fund provides a propane cooker to a displaced family so that women have the fuel they need to cook for their families without venturing outside the camps to gather firewood. Every dollar is one more day a mother can stay home with her family - that's the cost of a pack of gum.
The Fund supports African Union Firewood Patrols - patrols of African Union soldiers who escort women from the camps to where they gather firewood and back to the camps, ensuring that they do not become rape victims. To protect one woman from rape over an entire year is $3 - that's the cost of a latté.
On Dec. 5, hundreds of students across the world will be fundraising for the Civilian Protection Fund. These students are all a part of "A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition" (STAND). As part of the fundraiser, STAND chapters from across Massachusetts will be competing to see who can raise enough to "protect" the greatest percentage of their school.
And on Dec. 5, Tufts' STAND, a committee under the aegis of Pangea, will be asking, "What would YOU give to stomp out genocide?" For weeks, STAND members have been running bake sale after bake sale and selling hand-made T-shirts at the dining halls for $7 (with a $6 profit; every shirt saves two women). Our goal is to raise enough money to protect the equivalent of the 3,000 women here at Tufts.
In that light, we are encouraging people to think: What would you give to protect your best friend? Your roommate? Your sister? Your girlfriend? Your cousin? Your mother? Your classmate?
We wouldn't think twice about giving whatever it took. And since it takes the cost of a latté to save that same life in Darfur, we are hoping everyone would be willing to give.
Sabina Carlson is a sophomore majoring in peace and justice studies. For more information, contact tufts-stand@googlegroups.com.
