WHEN HUMANS HUMANITY IS INDIFFERENT THE ANSWER ISN'T MORE INDIFFERENCE

CARING IS HUMAN

The text of the presentation given at our Rhode Island
ACT NOW FOR DARFUR
event
QUIET RIOT FOR DARFURI FAMILIES
is below


Finding shade under the tree

Pictures of March 23, - April 1, 2009 trip to camp Djabal
The website: www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7

Shade - refuge from the sun
....................................................

....................................................
Uploaded by ilovemylifesblog

ACT NOW FOR DARFUR
QUIET RIOT FOR DARFUR
Newport's Easton Beach, Memorial Blvd, Newport, RI 02840
Organizer: Sandra Hammel
April 18, 2009 - 2:00 PM

Events like ours today are happening all over the United States during the month of April – Genocide Prevention Month (450 across the USA).

We are using our voices as our freedoms are intended – to speak of what matters to us. Martin Luther King said "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Today, we are here to honor our unmet friends of Darfur. The Darfuri people who are dead because of the genocide.

And we are here to honor those who are still surviving from the genocide in Sudan and neighboring Chad. Instead of focusing on numbers of the dead and raped, and the millions without their homes, we will hear the stories of only three families – doing what the numbers fail to do – make this personal.

In preparation for today, I have viewed many pictures and 10 videos on youtube of the SGN –Stop Genocide Now – team’s very recent trip in March through April to Djabal camp of Darfuri displaced people. I have been affected so by seeing the families, pictures showing to me what their lives are like and being able to feel in touch with them. I contrast my life’s problems with theirs. I put myself in their place and wonder could I ever keep up my spirits and manage to be friendly, hospitable and ever smile? They have absolutely not one convenience. Nothing. Only their human spirit and faith that someday this will all be over and they can return to their homes – or where their homes once were. That is all that they want.

Thank you for coming today for our fellow human beings who have had relatively little media attention. Our President repeatedly said during his campaign “This is a defining moment.” And he is right in many ways. President Obama has nearly been in office 100 days. This story is a defining issue because what we choose to do or not do - to help end genocide states by behavior our values, moral fortitude and character. In effect, we have spoken with our failing. Failing to do anything to halt the known 6 year genocide of unarmed Darfuri families. This situation is defining for our world leaders, who have at best, chosen rhetoric - leading to no useful action. In place of choosing political will, our leaders have chosen indifference. HUMANITY BEFORE POLITICS is on the t-shirts of 3 friends, Gabriel, Katie-Jay and Yuen-Lin of Stop Genocide Now, who spent 10 days in Djabal, a Darfuri refugee camp March 23 – April 1, 2009. Unless, our message is clear to our leaders it will be politics before humanity.

Elie Wiesel says "...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all...

The collective indifference to this human disaster is numbing and stunning.

Genocide has never happened when there is space on our “To Do” list – making it more probable for us to add Prevention or Stopping Genocide to our list. The holocaust went on for 12 years. Many claimed they didn’t know. We know this time. This time we have an internet to connect grass roots efforts to organize and pressure our leaders to make plans and act to resolve this human disaster. But here we are after years of pressuring and the genocide is worse than ever. On March 4th the ICC put an arrest warrant out on Sudanese President Bashir for crimes associated with the genocide. And on March 4, Bashir immediately revoked the licenses of 16 humanitarian organizations that have been keeping the people alive in the camps. Bashir says that he will protect the people that he is murdering. Now the refugees have been cut off from potable water, food and medical attention for 46 days. Meningitis, cholera and diarrhea are spreading in the camps inside the Sudanese borders.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
No Potable Water and No Food since March 4, 2009 – making a genocide worse

Genocide by Starvation

While in Djabal,
Carol Jordan an emergency and ICU respiratory care specialist explained what occurs during starvation and dehydration. Here is a part of that:

Hunger
When food is not readily available, the body is thrown off balance, which results in weight loss from the digestion of body fat first, then muscle, then vital organs to keep the body alive. Extreme weight loss turns to malnutrition and becomes starvation. The body becomes lethargic and a helpless system is going to end in a painful death.

Malnourished children get a disease caused by protein deficiency.

One of several signs of this is evident in the camp we are going to hear of today – reddish orange hair. I am only mentioning orange hair as one of several signs of this disease – the others are excruciating to hear.

Dehydration

A population of people living where water is scarce and contaminated tip over into dangerous intestinal infections easily.

An example of sudden life-threatening dehydration is cholera. A healthy adult can die from cholera in 2-6 hours because of the acute and massive diarrhea it causes. There is no effective vaccine and antibiotics do not act quickly enough.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Darfuris that we are now going to honor are living at Djabal camp, just over the Sudanese border to the west in the country of Chad. I would like to mention some numbers here: eighteen thousand live in camp Djabal. Approximately sixty percent of them are what we in the U.S. consider children. It is not a full life these children live, but they are alive.

As bad as it is for them, it is much better than those Darfuris inside the Sudanese borders. Of course the Stop Genocide Now team that just returned from Chad was not allowed inside Sudan.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
........................................................

........................................................
Uploaded by lovemylifesblog
Quiet Riot for Darfuri Families ~ April 18, 2009

HONORING THE DEAD - FLOWER PETALS

March 31, 2009
Dajhima - Mother
Khadija – Daughter
Ibrahim – son
www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/day9

Share pictures of school classroom, a clean path, tent 1, and preparing a meal by grinding the meal by hand.

Dajhima – mother

Family to honor: Dajhima – mother of daugher Khadija and son Ibrahim.
Video of Dajhima on April 1, 2009 - www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/day9

Daugher Khadija

I have no picture of son Ibrahim.

Dajhima’s story is her personal story of course, but it is a story that only changes with the names - as it is a story heard from most everyone in the camps.

The story of waking up to bombs falling on what used to be the place where friends would play. It is the story of trying to run as fast as you can, to get away, while choosing to either try to carry or leave behind your children. It is the story of finding out your father didn't make it.

On the day Dajhima retold her story she was attending yet another funeral in the camp - her daughter’s best friend’s mother.

Dajhima’s village was Aattacked during Ramadan 2004
Definition of Ramadan: RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE. PARTICIPATING MUSLIMS DO NOT EAT OR DRINK ANYTHING FROM TRUE DAWN UNTIL SUNSET DURING THE NINTH MONTH OF THE ISLAMIC CALENDAR.

FASTING IS MEANT TO TEACH THE PERSON PATIENCE, SACRIFICE AND HUMILITY. DURING RAMAḌĀN, MUSLIMS ASK FORGIVENESS FOR PAST SINS, PRAY FOR GUIDANCE AND HELP IN REFRAINING FROM EVERYDAY EVILS, AND TRY TO PURIFY THEMSELVES THROUGH SELF-RESTRAINT AND GOOD DEEDS.

In the video from SGN’s visit to Dajhima’s tent recently you see they greet by shaking hands, smiling. They are met with Friendliness and Warmth. There is some laughter. It all felt so normal as a time of greeting as I watched it. Only this was in a residence with canvas over sticks on sandy ground not fit for farming. And the Darfuri people are farmers.

Katie-Jay tells that in person, Dajhima is one of those people who you instantly connect with. Her arms open, cheerfully waving her hands, clasping hers and repeating her daughters name, Khadija, with laughter in between. She repeats the regular greetings, As-salam-mu-a-lai-kum, Al-ham-du-lil-lah… all the while smiling.

Dajhima rushes to wrap her scarf around her and stand tall for the camera. Charismatic and honest, she recounts her story. Katie-Jay said she couldn’t help but grasp her hands and tell Dajhima how sorry she was for her losses. The many in Darfur, and Khadija’s best friend’s mother.

Share pictures of Dajhima and Khadija and the article “When the Extreme Becomes the Norm”

Taken from a video online, Dajhima explains her story in these her own words:
When we were living in Sudan, we had so many things, like vegetables, fruit trees, and things we could prepare to eat. We could cultivate our land. Here is like a desert, nothing grows. Food that we are given is not enough. But there is nothing we can do, but wait for the monthly distribution.

Early in the morning, around 4:00 a.m., they started bombing us, and we had to leave all behind. During the attack, if you were strong - you can carry two of your children. But if not, they were left behind.

The helicopters were bombing from the sky. The janjaweed were riding their horses, and they would surround you and kill you.

During the running, so many people had fallen down. They were dead and injured. If you were holding your son’s hand and he escaped from you, there is no way to get him again because of the masses of people running. So many were injured and so many were killed.

My son Ibrahim and I were separated and it was eight days before I saw him again.

If they saw that you were wearing nice clothing, they would point the gun at you and tell you to remove it all.

They would take everything.

If they saw a girl that was about to be mature, they would take her away.

They killed my father and the son of another family member.

From my family-in-law, they killed six of their men.

There was no time to bury them. We had to run.

When we crossed to the border, some people from Chad helped us and gave us food.

After more than a month, the humanitarians came and brought us to this camp. Camp Djabal.

I thank God for everything. It is part of life.

We are still alive.

Sometimes it is very hard to feel the reality of what is really happening when in the United States. I think of the children in our families going through something like this. I see the pictures drawn by the children of blood dripping from their family members, their own government’s helicopters dropping bombs on their homes with blood drawn coming from them also, janjaweed pointing guns at their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grand parents, people forced to run over people already on the ground, fires being set to every house in their neighborhood, people laying dead and wounded with blood shown in the children’s drawing. While grateful that this isn't happening on our street, it is happening for Khadija, her mother, Dajhima and Ibrahim. Thinking of them as people just like you and me, Just like your children, Your loved ones - is chilling and sobering.

Flower Petals
At this time, to honor Dajhima’s father, son of another family member and six men from her family-in-law’s family and Khadija’s best friend’s mother -
who are, each one, dead due to inhumanity:

Toss of flower petals in the ocean to the song:
"Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" sung by Kathleen Emery

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This was the 7th trip for the SGN team to go to Darfuri refugee camps and posting daily videos on their website, as well as on Youtube for all to see. They also have very telling pictures of which I was referring to in the previous story when I talked of the drawings of the children. The photos of these brightly colored drawings also included Big Hearts with the word FAITH on it and with the PEACE sign with two words HOPE and PEACE written. Children and families – no matter where they reside want HOPE, PEACE and use their FAITH to get them through adversity. And Genocide is the Ultimate Adversity.

Honoring the living
with two families

1) Adef and Achta's family...

A video of Adef and Achta:
www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/day6

twin boys Bashar and Bashir (were Hissein and Hassan)

The same boy above as below.

Above the year is 2008

Below is a picture from March 2009...

daughter Guisma and (daughter Marymouda died in 2008)

Guisa again

The entire family of Achta and Adef

son Abdelmouni (is pictured only in the family group picture above)

Adef, Gabriel of Stop Genocide Now, Achta and Guisma

March 31, 2009 – the Stop Genocide Now team met Adef and Achta's family in 2008

2) Raouda (12 years old) and Hassanya, her grandmother

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adef and Achta – 4 children
Guisma, daughter
Bashar and Bashir, twins sons
Abdelmouni, son

In the Youtube video of Day 6 , March 28th of this year, Adef and Achta, the parents greeted Gabriel with smiles and cheerfulness. Lovely and loving family. They shared news of another child dying - Marymouda, daughter died. She was sick for 2 weeks. When they took her to the clinic there was nothing they could do for her.

Another of their babies had died earlier of dehydration, while on his mother’s back on the way from their village to Djabal camp.

Their young daughter, Guisma, basically, was not smiling and laughing as she did last year, when her giggle was contagious and she would get her twin brothers rolling. Achta, their mom, said she had been sick too, but healed.

Share pictures of the family - on green paper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the March 31, Katie-Jay Scott of the SGN -Stop Genocide Now - team wrote about 12 year old Raouda and Hassanya, her grandmother.

It affected me immediately.

Katie-Jay wrote the following about them on the SGN website while there:

“I am feeling a bit overwhelmed tonight. I have been trying to think about what to write and how to write it for some hours now.

Tomorrow, we leave after six amazing days in this refugee camp. Six days that have given me the chance to understand and know more than a dozen children intimately. Each one has shared with me their story, and shown me their home. As I spent more time with them, especially the girls, their personalities began to replace their initial shy smiles. They loosened up, laughed more, skipped, danced, and cracked jokes in broken English.

I feel so connected to them and it makes me really, really sad to say goodbye to them. I will be able to send them messages soon. I know that I will be back in the future to see them in person. But it is really hard to say goodbye to such a community.

I was also sad because I realized that even in a refugee camp, disparity can be so severe. While following one young girl to her house after school, we walked through narrow paths littered with animal feces, plastic, straw, and other garbage


rather than the sand that guided us to Adef’s and Achta’s house. This was Raouda.

Raouda’s house was so sad. Mostly sticks, with a torn tent, no bed or extra clothes hanging like many of the others. This twelve year old lived just with her grandmother and when not in school, she took care of most all the chores: water, cooking, cleaning, firewood. She leaves at 6 a.m. and returns around 5 p.m., carrying all she can.

Many of the girls we worked with were excited to show us their humble dwellings and for us to meet their families. This particular refugee looked upon us with very sad eyes as she pointed to her home, cooking area, and resting place, all within only a few steps.

12 year old Raouda

Raouda and her grandmother, Hassanya at their home

The grandmother looked so fragile, and they literally had one mat, and a few plastic bins for storage. Other than that, nothing. At all.”

We moved on quickly to the next little compound, which had an earthen oven, several tukul dwellings (huts), a blackboard, and large, open area to store firewood and dried grass. Katie-Jay shared that even though she knew fundamentally that this difference exists everywhere – this disparity affected her greatly.
-----------------------------------------------------

Residences contrasted:

In answering my questions, Katie-Jay shed more light on Raouda’s life in Djabal.
Contrasting Adef and Achta’s residence to Raouda’s and her grandmother’s this is what she said:

Raouda and her grandmother have two structures that are within a few feet of one another. There is no outer fence to provide privacy and it looks like they are situated right at a path that splits into four small paths. The sitting hut is made of all sticks and provides a space that is out of the sun. Just between this and their main sleeping tent is a small pit for cooking over while squatting. The walls of their tent are a mix of torn tarp and sticks, while the roof is three layers of sticks - a ragged tent. They live in the most crowded part of Camp Djabal.

Many families have a little compound or area that is enclosed by partitions made of grass. This part of Chad is more "lush" (relative to the rest of Chad, not necessarily what we would think of as lush) and has grass and more sticks for people to use to build a fence for privacy and weave together walls to replace the torn and ragged tents. In other parts of Chad, Darfur refugees use water and the sand to make bricks for the fence or buildings. All of the structures are single room structures. Traditional ones are round tukuls, but now some are more square with sticks and grass as walls and then make a roof with tents and tarps.

Raouda: “ I don’t remember my village, only where it was. There is nothing there, now.” Raouda was 7 years old when they came to the camp.

Adef and his family live in the far opposite zone. They have much more space than Raouda and her grandmother, Hassanya. Adef and Achta have a straw fence that is about 5 feet tall that surrounds a large area for their home. They have two sitting structures, and when we visited them - there were a handful of men in one, and a handful of women resting in the other. They then have a tent structure for storage and sleeping which is blocked by a smaller fence, almost like a screen for privacy. This is also the area with their kitchen fire pit. They have a few benches and mats for sitting. Raouda and her grandmother offered a tarp for us to sit on. The zone where Adef and Achta live is much cleaner than Raouda’s zone. This may be because it simply has fewer people and more space.

Raouda’s mother lives in another area of the camp.

Her grandmother, Hassanya looked like she was in pretty bad shape when we met her. Limping and old. We didn’t ask her directly why she couldn’t or didn’t help. But it looked obvious that most her life was hard, and she is probably toward the end of it. She definitely didn’t look like she should be going out to gather firewood. (neither did Raouda, but her mother had her go live with her grandmother to care for her, so it is her role currently.)

They have been living at Djabal for 5 years. It took them 2 weeks to walk to Tine from their village and be taken by UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) in trucks to Djabal.

Raouda is sad and lonely. She was serious when in school and interviewed on camera. She is introverted, but with other girls she seemed to enjoy herself. On the path walking to their place, KTJ said that they passed by girls her age and they smiled when seeing Raouda. Raouda was hospitable and kind.

She was the most serious, the most sad when at “home”.

The people either sleep on the sand, or on a bed frame made of sticks. The rain and wind come through the tents. The sticks provide protection from the sun and keep it cool. There is no electricity and wood is only used for cooking, so after dark most everyone is at home.

When it rains, there are large "wadis" or dry river beds that surround the camp and they flood. Many talk about how when it does rain, they just don't sleep because there are not enough sleeping beds off the floor. KTJ said: “ I am not sure about Raouda specifically, but they definitely sleep on the ground. They had tarps and sticks trying to make walls, but I am sure that the rain gets in.”

It is desert so it is very hot during the day, but cold at night. Like the deserts here. Keeping warm in the cold months may be an issue for Raouda and her grandmother, as they don't have much. Some people have been given blankets.

Cleaning:
The UN Refugee Agency – UNHCR - when available gives out soap, each month on food distribution day. It's not much and many times they don't get it. Each refugee gets about 15 liters of water a day - that's for everything - washing clothes, cooking, drinking, sharing if needed - and that may not be accurate, it's just an estimate from UNHCR and water is definitely one of the things they say they don't have enough of.

I have always wondered how it is for them regarding having privacy to take care of their hygiene and “bathroom” needs.

KTJ: Some have a latrine area where there is a hole and a woven "screen" that provides some privacy. But there isn't much and I didn't see anything like this at Raouda's.

a kitchen

In answering my question about what they eat, I was referred to a video from their 6th trip – which was last year and this is what I saw. www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact6/day9 People chattering outside a tent waiting for their names to be called. Inside they would receive rations to be scooped into their containers and dragged home. The team followed a mother, Husna who got the following for her family of five to live on for one month:

2.5 ounces of salt
6 cups of sugar
11 lbs of cereal
8 cups of oil
25 cups of yellow split peas
70 lbs of sorghum grain That is it.

A woman preparing the grain for a meal at camp Djabal (March28, 2009)

Remember they have no refrigerator.

When asked what they would be eating back home in their village farms in Darfur:
Answer: tomatoes, millet, maize, okra, papaya

At the camp, some have a cooking hut. Raouda cooks over a hole in the ground.

When I asked if they gather communally and for what activities?

I was told:

They probably eat alone, but I was also told that Darfuris always tell stories about how they share their food when someone doesn't have enough.

And they get together for different ceremonies. There was one when SGN was there, but KTJ wasn’t sure what it was for. They mostly worship on their own. Drumming comes with the ceremonies and there is always singing at school! Always. And always about returning to Sudan.

When I asked: What can Raouda look forward to on a daily basis? Is there a highlight to her day?

Answer: “This is a really hard question. School. School is only thing they have to do.

Raouda expressed missing her home. Her dolls and a stuffed animal. She loved playing JAX.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stone Skipping
At this time, I would like to ask you to skip your stone on the water – to set in motion our energy fields – as in quantum physics - sending out our energy of desire to make a difference for Darfuris – while sending the energy toward Sudan and Chad with the intention to replace the pain of genocide with positive change. Change - so needed and as quickly as possible.

Please join me in saying to our leaders and specifically to President Obama :
“We are United States citizens and we are the voices for our Darfuri brothers and sisters. Please, Act Now for Darfur. Thank you President Obama for not remaining silent and indifferent.”

Lighting of the candles
Candles – symbolizing our light and voices being used for those in need of Darfur.
Music: "This Little Light Of Mine" sung by Odetta

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King

Everyone signed the petition to President Obama. The petition was mailed to the Save Darfur Coalition in Washington, D.C., who will deliver them to The White House. The collective number of petition signatures will let the President know we are not silent.

Clean path, little boy with a water container

Teacher preparing lessons for class

School classroom

School yard

March 30, 200 9 - www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/day7
School children at camp Djabal

Video of the school they renamed Obama School:
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/day8

a residence - a maple seedling at the door

A smile even here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Write to President Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Tell him we need his leadership for the short and long run
on the issue of genocide and the
6 year old genocide on the unarmed Darfuri civilians, families.

President Obama can be called:
202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE

Find USA elected politicians contact information at this link:
www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Check this out
www.darfurscores.org
Your elected officials get graded on Darfur

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JOIN OTHERS TO PUT AN END TO GENOCIDE
www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.standnow.org

Urge UN and Sudanese Ambassadors to use their influence to press the government of Sudan to fully restore humanitarian aid in and around Darfur.

Join the solidarity for Dafur at this site

http://fastdarfur.org/

In Sudan - Extermination by Starvation and Dehydration is happening
since March 4, 2009

Genocide will never stop without us being stewards of humanity.

............................................................

............................................................
A wish for Darfuris
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sung by Eva Cassidy
Uploaded by stressbed