A Day for Darfur at Hood helps raise awareness

Mar. 7, 2007
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon@fredericknewspost.com

  FREDERICK — One of the worst experiences of Audrey Glynn's life was when her home in New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina.
     When Glynn, 29, was forced out of the city, she was about to give birth to her second daughter.
     “We were displaced for several months, but there was an end in sight,” she said. “We have our government to help us, we had plenty of resources.”
     Glynn moved to Gaithersburg in November to work for the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick.
     But she'll never forget the horrors of Katrina.
     That experience helped her identify with people in the documentary “Darfur Diaries: Message from Home,” which Glynn saw Tuesday with about 20 students and residents at Hood College.
     The film was part of A Day for Darfur, which included an information fair and panel discussion to increase awareness of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
     The government-backed Janjaweed militia has killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and displaced millions during a ethnic and political conflict that began in 2003. Other atrocities include systematic rape, torture and recruitment of child soldiers.
     The film showed the people of Darfur speaking about their experiences, their fears and their hopes for the future.
     “I expected a lot of emphasis on the genocide, death and rape, and they did touch on that,” Glynn said. “But it was really an eye-opener with the gray areas in between.”
     People on screen recalled how their homes were destroyed. Family members were tortured and killed. Schools were leveled. Books burned.
     “These people didn't just lose their possessions, they are without anything — not even hope,” Glynn said. “It really opens your eyes to everything we take for granted.”
     Outside the theater, at the information fair, students from more than a dozen organizations handed out pamphlets and took donations.
     History junior April Roberts, 20, educated attendees about rape as an act of war against women in Darfur. She represents the Feminist Leadership Majority Alliance, a national organization that advocates equality.
     “It's a human rights issue,” she said. “It hurts me that these things happen internationally and we can do things in Iraq to help but not Darfur.”
     Liberal arts freshman Andre Dias, 19, of Bangalore, India, helped raise money for Doctors Without Borders with a novel idea. Pay a dollar to vote for a faculty member to kiss a goat.
     “It's an interesting way to get their money,” he said. “But it also brings awareness. People should know about the outside world, not just the problems their country is faced with.”
     Glynn pledged to send weekly letters to Congress in support of Darfur. She plans to stop eating out to save money to help.
     “It's not enough for people to feel bad or say, ‘Oh that's really awful.' You need to make your voice heard,” she said. “I wish there was something more I could do, but if everyone sent letters there would be no choice but for our country to step up.”