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'Camp Darfur' exhibit shows effects of genocide
2 p.m., March 13, 2007--On March 7, the Rodney Room of Perkins Student Center was transformed into a refugee camp. Five canvas tents formed a semicircle in the small room, with signs identifying the genocide and the date it took place. The last tent represented Darfur, with the date “now” and a death toll of 400,000 and counting. From 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., Students, faculty and staff were exposed to the effects of genocide at Camp Darfur, a traveling interactive awareness and education exhibit funded by the grassroots community Stop Genocide Now. The all-day event was part of Smyth residence hall's first annual “Hunger and Homelessness Week,” from March 5-10. Smyth Hall is a part of UD's Central Complex, whose residence curriculum is based upon the concept of service learning. Slide shows of refugee victims and an iTunes video about Darfur Junior Amanda Carl, exhibit organizer and resident assistant in Smyth Hall, said she learned about Camp Darfur after attending workshops about Darfur advocacy at the National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness Conference in Los Angeles in October 2006. She contacted Stop Genocide Now and Gabriel Stauring, co-founder of Stop Genocide Now, came to UD with the exhibit, which he takes to high schools, universities and institutions around the country. “I thought that Camp Darfur would be so amazing to have here at Delaware,” Carl said. “It would really impact people and really state a message.” The exhibit took two hours and 15 volunteers to set up, Carl said, adding she hopes the impact last for a long time. “I hope people realize that Darfur is not the only genocide that happened,” she said. “There were many before it, and we've seemed to not learn our lesson. There is an issue going on in Darfur, there is a problem and we need to take action. We need to do our part, being the largest group of people registered to vote in the United States, to make change.” Stauring first set up Camp Darfur in April 2006 in Los Angeles. For five days, 50 people, including his wife and two children, lived in 15 tents as refugees. The impact of the exhibit was so strong, Stauring said, he began to travel with the camp around the United States. Stauring does not ask for payment but accepts donations to keep the exhibit going. For events in California, Stauring said he rents a van to store 10 tents, but ships tents and stores them in luggage for other locations. Stauring said the exhibit makes an impact by placing Darfur in its historical context. “You first see Armenia in 1915, then you walk through to the Holocaust in 1938, Cambodia in 1975 and Rwanda in 1994,” Stauring said. “You see it's a series of genocides where the world has failed. Right now we have a chance to do something about one that is going on right now. Darfur is not history, it is something that is going on today. It gives it the urgency that it needs.”
Stauring's commitment to Darfur also intensified with his trip to refugee camps. In 2006 and 2007, Stauring traveled to the border of Chad, visiting Darfur survivors and documenting his trip with photos that are exhibited in Camp Darfur. “A year ago was somewhat safe,” Stauring said. “I was able to see the camps running full force with all the AID [Agency for International Development] workers and the international aid getting in there.” Stauring was advised not to come back in 2007, as the Darfur violence was now moving into Chad. Most of the AID workers were pulled out of the camps, Stauring said, and refugees were not safe in their own camps. “I could see the physical conditions getting worse and the morale situation of the people as well,” he said. “They had less hope, now being four years that some of them have been there. I meet some people that had just arrived as new refugees. The exact same thing that happened four years ago, that has continued to happen, is happening right now.” Although the U.S. government declared Darfur a genocide more than two years ago, Stauring said the steps to protect civilians as mandated by international law have not happened. The international community must come together for the first time in history and do something about an ongoing genocide as it's happening, Stauring said, and not just wait until it's over and feel sorry about it. “I think we just have to move from talk into actual action,” he said. “I really think if our government would make it a priority and put pressure on other governments to act, that that would change the situation. There are a lot of us raising awareness around the country, but it's going to take a lot more so our leaders know enough of us care about it.” Stauring said international relations with Sudan and other countries makes Darfur a very complex situation, but it is innocent civilians who are suffering. “The people in the camps I visit are mostly women and children, and they're not a part of that complexity, they're just the ones that are suffering. I really think that's what we have to address. It's just regular families that are suffering, so we have to do whatever it takes to protect them,” he said. The world would want to stop the Holocaust if it was happening today, Stauring said, and there is a chance to stop Darfur now. “I think it's very easy for many to say Africa has too many problems,” he said. “By seeing the history of genocide, you can see that it can happen anywhere. It's not about color, it's not about where it's happening, it can happen anyplace. For the first time, I think we have to make 'never again' mean something.” Senior Sarahanne Blake said she was struck by what she learned at Camp Darfur. “It's very eye-opening,” Blake said. “I guess I didn't realize there were so many genocides in the last century and how huge they were. You don't really hear about them.” Camp Darfur at UD was sponsored by Amnesty International, Uganda Untold and Student Anti-Genocide Coalition (STAND). For more information on Camp Darfur, visit [www.campdarfur.org/index.php?title=Main_Page] or e-mail [Gabriel@stopgenocidenow.org]. Article by Julia Parmley, AS '07
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