Not Only Boys are Solidiers

When we hear child soldiers we imagine boys with guns. I would have never thought about girls being obligated to fight for the rebel groups. I read an article in the WorldArk magazine titled "Never the same" by L. Lamor Williams, where a woman named Grace Akallo tells her story about her abduction in the LRA. She was abducted by the LRA from her High School in Northern Uganda. Akallo dreamed of being the first person to attend college but her dreamed vanished when she was kidnapped in Oct. 9, 1996 beside other 138 girls. She marched with the LRA into southern Sudan where she saw many children being killed on the way with sticks, axes, bayonets, and machetes. The children were killed and abandoned in the forest. She learned to use a gun and the hunger tought her to hunt. She battled against the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Sudan. She was obligated to kill those girls who tried to escape or refuse there husbands, so she was repeatedly raped by an LRA commander on countless occasions. Akallo finaly saw her chance to escape in April 9, 1997 when she fainted from thirst and hunger and was buried by the LRA in a shallow grave. She walked for 2 weeks and was rescued by sudanese villager who handed her to the Uganda government then to her parents. Akallo finaly got the chance to go back to St. Mary's College and graduated. Now she is a graduate student at Clark University near Boston Studying international development she is now 29 years old.

Holidays

Time of happiness is here. Well for some people who enjoy the big lines in stores, Santa in the mall, gaining some fat from grandmas famous cooking, and most importantly presents. We as Americans have the great opportunity to write Santa a Christmas letter of what we would like this year.
I was thinking that instead of asking Santa for a new cell phone, ipod touch, or those amazing form teddy bear socks from JCPenny, I would ask Santa for something more meaning full something that would change someones life around the world, I want t-shirts, bracelets, or maybe a kid. Don't be scared I'm not adopting a child I'm to young for that responsability. I want to sponsor one. For these holidays I believe it's a great idea to buy presents for your friends and family that would help kids around the world have a better quality of life. Since after all we spend money on the most ridiculous things, (like teddy bear socks) around this time. We want the most meaningful presents for our love ones so spend that money on something unique and for a good cause. Check out the links and find something that will make a diffrence, then writte to Santa and we will see if you have been a good kid on Christmas Day.

Children abused in Darfur

Two important organizations, the Watchlist on children and Armed Conflict report accused the Sudanese government of "apparent deliberate efforts.. to suppress information and prevent agencies form collecting and disseminating details on attacks against children and their protection needs, particularly in Darfur"(par. 2). This shows that not only adults are being tortured but kids as well are suffering. This article was published April 20, 2007 when the United Nations to this problem into account. This abuse of children has been going on since 2004 or even earlier, so it took about 3 years for the United Nations to realize that kids needed to be protected. Children are being raped, tortured, mutilation abducting and gang-raping girls and using kids as combatants(5), these are just a few examples of what kids are going through probably until this day. The situation is not only in Darfur but all around the world. Youngsters are also lacking the education necessary to grow because teachers as well as students are being attacked by military groups. The Watchlist steering committee include Care International, Save the children Alliance, Women's commission soldiers, Norwegian Refugee Council, International save the Children Alliance, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and World Vision Canada.

Children Soldiers

According to an article I found called "Darfur: 6,000 Children Soldier", about 8,000 children soldiers are in Sudan and 6,000 of them are in the region of Darfur. The Darfur crisis is effecting approximately two million children. Most of these kids that have been seen with the Armed Forces are between the ages of 15-17 years old. The International community and the Sudanese law considers adult hood at the age of 18. Some cultures in the other hand kids are considered to be adults when they hit puberty. The 700,000 children in Darfur were born after 2004 have been living their life in war zone.
I believe that these kids are more likely to join the military at a young age because they have not learned anything but war. The children of the genorations after 2004 are in great danger of beeing wiped out. Their parents are getting killed and they might get killed as well, if they join the arm forces in Western Sudan or anywhere in Sudan. These kids in Darfur are not the only ones joining the Arm forces but in other parts of Africa as well. Not all kids who join the Arm forces are carrying a gun but they are beside them.

My Reflection

One evening, I sat home to research Darfur. I found a lot of valuable information about the genocide in this country. I discovered that this country is located in Africa. Two main ethnic groups share Darfur, the Arabs and African-farmers. The Arabs have more political power then the Africans, who dedicate their time to work on the fields. Therefore, African-farmers decided to take more land from the Arabs, because they blamed them of a drought that could have been prevented by a government warning. Arabs did not like the fact that the Africans revolted against them. Over taken by rage, the Arabs started a war against the African-farmers killing many innocent people. Later, Arabs united their forces with the Janjawee militia to fight for land. Now, the Janjawee militia is burning entire villages, killing the men, raping the women, and making sure that pregnant African women die.

After reading all this information I asked my self, why doesn't anyone do anything about all this killing? I have known about this genocide since I was in 8th grade, but it never came to my mined that it would last more than 5 years. I believe that, because we live in a multi-cultural society, and powerful continents such as North America and Europe are really involved with helping others, I considered my options to be logical and I trusted them to save these people. As I look back to what I thought would save Darfur, I consider them to be unreal. We should do something for the world.

As I searched for more information about this mass killing, I found that the media advertises celebrity gossip more then this genocide. It's shocking to look at the charts of how unpublicized this genocide is. The media gave 50 times more coverage to Michael Jackson's child molestation trial then Darfur. It amazed me to find that not a lot of people know about the genocide. As I talked to my friends about my discovery most of them didn't know what Darfur meant. Most of them I went to school with in 8th grade, so they should know about it. This made me wonder even more. I think that we are just so self centered. We care more about ourselves and celebrities then we do about people who really need are help. I guess that even though we have advanced technology that helps us be connected with the world, we are still ignorant about what is going on in are planet.

After finding this information I'm more aware that event thought we live in a world of globalize media, we are still unconnected with the world. It's sad how we give more importance to rich people's lives then poor people who are getting raped and brutally killed. Now I'm aware of the importance of me writing and blogging about the genocide in Darfur. I hope that I can make this silent genocide noticeable to people who are unaware about the crisis in Darfur.

Shirt for Darfur!

Unus Mundus which means one word in Latin. They are a group of designers and merchandisers, who's love for charity brings them together to design fashionable clothing and accessories. Unus Mundus works with materials that are Eco-friendly so that we have a small impact on mother earth but a huge impact on humanity by buying their pieces. Their Darfur t-shirts are made in the USA or through special programs that employ refugees. 100% renewable bamboo is used for the shirts. The money goes to the Women for Women Darfur Fund they help women to be educated and protected. The shirt design is a "scene of Darfur refugees doing their daily chores (in grey) walking through a dark patch (symbolizing the current humanitarian crises) to the lower part of the print (in vivid colors) showing the radiating light and color that Unus Mundus brings into their lives. Each letter in Unus Mundus is filled with the flag of a country whose citizens have donated substantially to aid the crisis in Darfur." There is shirts in green, black, and yellow and there is boy and girl shirts. I think this is a great shirt that I thought was overal the best opion for the Eco-friendly design and the message it brings.

I want to thank everyone for commenting me on my blogs. All I want you to get out of my blog is information about what has happened and is happening in Darfur. Also, what we can do to help. I had a great comment by Jenna about an online website called Cafegive. This website is a online store where you can find products that are delicious and tasty like chocolates to a girls passion, shoes. Now you might ask yourself what does this have to do with the crisis in Darfur? Well a lot! This online store donates a certain percentage of the original price of the product you buy to the non-profit organization of your choice. Such as Mercy Corps which helps the crisis in Darfur. This is such a creative way (I think) to make people donate money while they buy what they want and need. I know many people who love shopping for Christmas presents, birthday presents, or for themselves this is a great way to make everyone happy. Check out the website and try it out lets make a change while we shop online!