The UNH chapter of STAND, the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, will be hosting a vigil and fast on Dec. 5, at 4:30 p.m., beginning in the MUB and continuing on T-Hall lawn. The chapter is joining the nation as they honor National DarfurFast Day.
"There is something symbolic about DarfurFast," said sophomore Jacqueline Lewis, co-founder and Divestment Head of UNH STAND. "To fast for Darfur is to recognize that there are millions of people living in situations we in America can't even begin to fathom, but something we can do is make a tangible change in our daily habits in honor and remembrance of those thousands of miles away who are suffering."
An estimated 450,000 Darfurians have been killed as a result of the conflict either from violence, famine or disease, and roughly 2.5 million people have been displaced. That is more than four times larger than Manchester, N.H. The purpose of the fast is to benefit those people.
DarfurFast is a national effort. The proceeds go directly to the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net) Civilian Protection Program. The first of its kind, GI-Net works with Darfurian leaders to protect women and girls in camps for displaced people.
GI-Net offers safer options for women by providing them with equipment to cook their own food. Should they leave the camp to find fire wood, there is a chance of rape and other dangers. An average of $3 can protect one person for a year. As the donations accumulate, UNH STAND will build a paper chain to represent the lives affected by the fundraising. The goal is to raise at least $1,500.
While the goal of DarfurFast is to collect donations, the members of STAND hope to achieve something more.
"If we only wanted to raise money, we wouldn't be asking people to conscientiously change their daily habits," said Lewis. "While every dollar donated is appreciated, to actually take the time to think about a daily habit, and to sacrifice something, no matter how small, no matter how trivial in the grand scheme of things, is to say something really powerful."
Lewis explained the need for students to spread the message to those in Darfur that, "we will think of you, and we will sacrifice with you. Your lives matter to us, your suffering matters to us, you matter to us."
At UNH there will also be a candlelight vigil to educate students on the necessity of anti-genocide.
"What we hope to achieve with this vigil is to create awareness for those who might not really understand what is going on in Darfur and what the actual facts are," said STAND member Zac Delcambre. "We are trying to get people to come and maybe start to feel a kind of connection to the people over there as we will be reading stories about their lives and daily struggles."
To establish an understanding within the UNH community, STAND has invited Rwandan genocide survivor and UNH junior Marie Gakuba to speak of her experiences. In addition, STAND members will read from diaries detailing the happenings in Darfur. Lewis hopes that these accounts will "put a face and a name and a real human being to a conflict filled with numbers and statistics."
The first US STAND chapter was formed in 2004, a year after the fighting in the Sudan began and weeks after President Bush declared Darfur "genocide." Now there are more than 300 chapters across the country and more than 700 around the world. According to the official Web site, STAND has partnered with the GI-Net "under a shared vision of creating a permanent anti-genocide constituency."
The Web site further stated that while "STAND's primary focus is currently on Darfur, Sudan, other conflicts, like the violence in Burma and Congo, speak to the heart of our mission." The efforts to end the violence in Darfur are "laying the groundwork for a faster response time to future genocides."
Student action is at the center of STAND. Delcambre said that student action promotes change but also "[brings] about a more open and general understanding and compassion for the rest of the world instead of being someone with no outside ties or comprehension of what is going on."
Lewis agreed. She said that student action "is about human life, and the responsibility of those who have a voice to use it, and use it loudly, for those who cannot speak for themselves. It is about using the freedoms of action that we have to take concrete, meaningful action for those who do not have that power, those who do not share that freedom."
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