The Darfur Crisis: Making a Difference

For the past few days I have found myself reading "Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond" a book by actor Don Cheadle and activist John Prendergast. I've had the book now for a few months thanks to my joining Team Darfur, and although I wanted to continue to take an active part in all that Team Darfur and the Save Darfur group are doing to bring an end to the conflict, the book just sat on my shelf. I wear my Team Darfur wristband everyday, especially during training or when I'm at any event as an athlete. But still, the book sat on the shelf. But there was something about the haunting look in the little child's eyes on the cover of the book and I knew that I needed to sit down and read.

And I couldn't stop.


Since joining Team Darfur, I've had access to some incredibly eye-opening (and heartbreaking) photos, videos, statistics, articles, and reports about the tragedies occurring daily in the Sudan. I cannot imagine the horrors and fears that these people have to face everyday. Children who have to walk hundreds of miles carrying their baby brother because their parents were killed before their eyes. Mothers who must choose to let their families starve....or walk miles into the desert for firewood where they might be found by roving militias and murdered or raped. Just imagine, while we sit comfortably at our desks, imagine for a moment living in daily fear of having your village burned, the women raped and then enslaved, and the men and livestock killed and left to rot in the sun. If you're a parent, imagine having to watch your children shot, enslaved, or sometimes thrown into raging fires to burn alive.

It isn't a very pretty picture is it? The worst part about it is that it happens every day in Darfur.

I think that is why I couldn't stop reading "Not On Our Watch." It made me uncomfortable (there were plenty of times that I wanted to close the book) and I knew that the discomfort was my conscience calling for action. It is so simple for us to say, "Oh, I give money to the Red Cross" or "Darfur is so far away, what does it have to do with me?" or one of a million other conscience-soothing excuses we give to lull ourselves into a sort of mental security about our inaction.

Here are a couple of quotes to think about:

"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct." -- Thomas Carlyle

"You may think your actions are meaningless and that they won't help, but that is no excuse, you must still act." -- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

"All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

So, what can we do about it? Team Darfur has compiled a wonderful list of actions that can be taken to help bring about an end to this conflict that has already destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Although we get readers from all over the world, I'm betting most will recognize these words:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..," one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence.

I think about the stories that I've read about the Darfur victims, about the families who are living in plastic boxes with tin roofs in the middle of the desert. I think about the children who kick rocks around the refugee camps because they have no other earthly possessions. I think of eight year old girls who become the mother for her three younger siblings because there is no one left in their family. I think of the humanitarian aid being blocked and/or stolen by corrupt government officials and the raiding parties.

I never thought I'd find myself as an activist. I'm not sure that is even the right phrase anyway. To me, while growing up an activist was a "tree-hugger" or slightly crazy hippie. They lived off of granola and ranted and raved about this that or the other.

But after reading all that I have about Darfur, I find myself asking: how can I not do something? Even if it isn't much, I have to do something. We all do. If not us, who? If not now, when? So I'm asking you, not as an athlete but as a fellow human being, let's do what we can. Again, Team Darfur has a great list of suggested actions to take.

Here is a list by country of what you can do.

To order a copy of "Not On Our Watch" click here.

If you're not sure what is occurring in Darfur at this time, please click here.

Again, you might not be able to change the world. But if every step you take, every act you make rescues just one life...didn't you just save their world?