I live in a small town in Georgia. All my life, I’ve been surrounded by people who love me, plenty of food, and I’ve never once, not one time, gone to bed hungry. I spend my days and nights worrying about the things that most Americans worry about. Will I have enough money to buy a new car? Can I afford to retire when I’m 65? Should I increase or decrease the amount of life insurance I have? But, tonight, as I’m thumbing through the channels, I stumbled across a 60 Minutes piece about Darfur. I must confess, I had heard of “Darfur” but I’d struggle to find it on a map. To be honest, until I looked it up, I didn’t know if Darfur was a country, a province, or a city. But, after watching the piece on 60 Minutes, I’ve decided that I’ve got to do “something”. Seriously. Do you know about conflict in Darfur? Here’s just a snippet from Wikipedia:
There are many casualty estimates, most concurring on a range within the hundreds of thousands. The United Nations (UN) estimates that the conflict has left as many as 450,000 dead from violence and disease… As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006…
Do you see those numbers? Staggering… Basically, there are 2.5 MILLION human beings who have been driven from their homes, forced to live in tent-like housing, baking in the hot dessert son, miles and miles and miles away from their homelands. I don’t have the time (nor the desire) to go into the details about the political upheaval that lead to this genocide, but I hope that you will take the time to educate yourself about the conflict in Darfur.
So, what is the “something” that I can do? At first I had the idea of asking for donations, or doing some silly “leave a comment and I’ll donate a dollar” type thing… but that’s all too… trivial? trite? self-promotional? So, I’ll leave it up to each of you as to what your “something” is going to be. As for me, I’m going to go to bed hungry. Instead of eating at night, I’m going to spend time in prayer, meditation, and thought, thinking about the people who are suffering in Darfur, and I’m going to make some kind of donation to help them. I’m going to talk to other people about them. I’m going to speak to my church about them. THEM! Not just “Darfur”… THEM. Human beings, created in the image of God, each one individually designed with purpose and meaning. Dying, thousands per day, many of them alone, sick, broken-hearted, poor, sad and away from their homes.
If you want to learn more about Darfur and it’s people and the terrible reality of their struggles, click here to Save Darfur. Make a donation, spread the word, say a prayer, or share their story. Just. Do. Something.
–Jason (NCN)
Darfur has been the biggest humanitarian crisis facing the world for some time now. One of my regular charities does relief work out there. You have inspired me to do something extra, I think I will donate some more money.
We brought home our adopted daughter from Guatemala last year. It was the first time we had been out of the country (we being my wife and my 2 oldest boys…we have 5 boys). Anyway going out the country is one thing, going to a place like Guatemala was another. We learned so much and frankly it changed our lives forever.
I think we as American’s (including myself) sometimes forgot that everyone else doesn’t live like we do. The small things we take for granted, like knowing we’ll have food tonight, knowing that statistically we will live to see a new day tomorrow, etc, etc. are luxuries to some and dreams to others.
Reading an article on other places like this one or even being able to visit other countries is a great reminder. Thanks for writing this Jason.
Have to do a little digging and see what missionary groups are there. That’s how I prefer to make a financial difference.
Until the government of Dafur straightens itself out and stops the killing, there isn’t too much we can do. if you do decide to send a donations, double check the charity and make sure it is going into the right hands.
Putting more pressure on the US Gov is probably a good thing to do also.
I wish more people were aware of the real world around them. it completely changes the way you live, think, spend and give.
I agree with Ted. We complain about simple things, when this country id barely surviving