The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News October 13, 2007

Oberlin Students STAND Up for Darfur in D.C.

ver the weekend of September 28, a delegation of Oberlin students attended a national conference on Darfur organized by STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, formerly Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, in Washington, D.C. The five Oberlin delegates were among 400 students from 40 states who made the trip to learn more about the genocide in Darfur and ways to publicize their organization.

College junior Sara Skvirsky and College first-years Katie Thompson, Jimmy Hagan, Catherine Durkin and Julia Chafkin represented Oberlin’s STAND chapter.

Thompson spoke enthusiastically about the gathering: “I think the biggest thing I took away was how to get the message out,” she said. Thompson and fellow conference attendees heard lectures by doctors, documentary filmmakers and others who had first-hand experience in Sudan. The students also met in workshops to learn how to put their knowledge into action.

She will be working on a project called Banaa: Sudan Educational Empowerment Network, which aims to provide students from Sudan with a four-year college education they can use to give back to their homeland. According to the group’s website, banaa is Arabic for “to build, to found, to create.”

In order to raise awareness about this and similar projects, the local chapter of STAND will be sponsoring events throughout the school year to motivate the Oberlin community. The group hopes to host a panel of genocide survivors over parents’ weekend, including a Holocaust survivor and Cambodian and Rwandan refugees.

Skvirsky, one of the founding members of Oberlin’s STAND group, expressed her hope that this and similar events will combat what she calls “Darfur fatigue.” She described a trend of people turning away from the issue because it has become so familiar: “There’s still a genocide going on&hellip;People are just saying that things are over when they’re clearly not.”

Other events to raise awareness will include a Darfur fast on December 8, in which students give up one luxury food item and donate the money they would have spent to the cause. This event is based on the fact that three dollars can support one African Union or United Nations peacekeeper for one year.

STAND also looks forward to screening two documentary films that were also shown at the national conference, Voices from Darfur and Darfur Diaries: Message From Home. Finally, the group will put on the third annual Jam for Sudan benefit, its largest fundraiser, this spring.

This year, STAND has made the decision to give the money it raises to the Genocide Intervention Network, a group that is still on the ground in Darfur and able to contribute to the relief effort. Skvirsky explained that Doctors Without Borders, which received Oberlin STAND’s contribution in previous years, has become ineffective in the region. Doctors without Borders along with other aid organizations has been losing its presence in the region throughout the conflict.

Also on the long agenda for STAND is a project in conjunction with the Oberlin Peace Activists League to create a human rights concentration or course at the College. As Skvirsky said, “We claim all the time to be so socially conscious&hellip; Well, we should put our money where our mouth is.”

She continued to speak on her desire to raise awareness and end ignorance about the issue of genocide: “Even though the genocide in Sudan will eventually end, it’s not the last genocide of the 21st century,” said Skvirsky.

Though Skvirsky saw genocide as a “perpetual problem,” she was not without hope, but rather felt that only with determination and understanding could it be thoroughly addressed. “What we really need to do is&hellip;reflect on the past and learn from our mistakes to really be able to make a difference.”

In addition to other activities, STAND continues to hold weekly meetings on Mondays at 9:30 p.m. in Wilder 204.


 
 
   

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