Creativity + Activism: Full Speed Ahead for April Darfur Rally!

SAIC’s Student Activists are helping to raise awareness and funds for Darfuri students living in refugee camps. They have teamed up with Youth United for Darfur, a coalition of over 35 student groups from colleges, universities, and high-schools in the Chicago area sponsored by several prominent international organizations such as the Save Darfur Coalition, STAND and Amnesty International. This coalition is staging a major rally in Federal Plaza at 1 pm on Sunday April 19^th to culminate their 10-week fundraising drive supporting education in the Djabal Refugee camp in Eastern Chad. A portion of their donations will also go towards the new Sudanese Community Center, which supports Sudanese refugees living right here in Chicago.

The rally will feature musical acts and rousing speeches by activists, politicians, and survivors of the Sudanese crisis. Artwork by Darfuri students will be on display, and attendees will be invited to record a video message of support that will be played for Darfuri children.

A similar event in 2007 attracted thousands and helped ensure the passage of anti-genocide legislation. (Images posted here are from last year's rally.) This year’s innovative event has three key goals:

-Showing Darfuri children in refugee camps that residents of President Obama's home state stand with them and that they are not forgotten.

-Highlighting for the world the fact that Illinois' American and Sudanese youth are working together in their efforts to bring peace to Sudan.

-Demonstrating to President Obama that Illinois vocally supports new efforts to end the conflict in Sudan.

This undertaking is remarkable not only because it is entirely student-driven, but also because it creates a way for Chicago’s students to directly reach out to their peers in the Darfuri refugee camps, who have been cut off from education, opportunity, and the outside world.

For more information, visit youthunitedfordarfur.org, where you can also find the SAIC Student Activists’ fundraising page. Donations of clothing and funds will also be collected at the rally.

Quick summary of the crisis in Darfur:

Darfur is a region of western Sudan, approximately the size of France.

The country has been in violent turmoil since 2003, when the black African Darfuris rebelled against the country’s Arab-ruled government, headed by President Omar al-Bashir. The government responded by arming the Janjaweed militiamen, who brutally attacked the people of Darfur, wiping out whole villages and terrorizing survivors. According to the UN, the ensuing civil war has killed approximately 300,000 people due to warfare and resulting disease and malnutrition, and over 2.5 million more Darfuris have been displaced from their home villages. The displaced are currently living in refugee camps: many remain within the borders of Sudan, although an increasing number are fleeing to crowded camps in neighboring Chad. Last month, the UN’s International Criminal Court released a warrant to arrest President al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In response, al-Bashir called for the immediate removal of all major foreign aid organizations who had been providing food, medical attention, and education to the Darfuri refugees. The UN has estimated that if aid organizations are not permitted to resume their work, up to 100,000 Sudanese could die each month. It remains a highly volatile situation, and the lives of millions Darfuri’s lives hang in the balance.