Outreach

Below is an example of what happens when our organizations come together. Despite the turnout for the student-led event, the rally garnered a front-page mention and nearly full-page story in the Atlanta Journal the following day.

50 protest in Decatur over Darfur Gathering part of a global banner event

By George Chidi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/30/07

A paper banner with 100,000 faces fluttered in the wind beneath the feet of passers-by at Decatur's courthouse square Sunday.

Each represented a person killed in the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Organizers from Darfur Urgent Action Coalition of Georgia, Amnesty International and other local groups unfurled the banner Sunday afternoon, hoping to draw attention to their cause.

About 50 people gathered Sunday afternoon on the steps of the DeKalb County Courthouse in Decatur to show support for an end to the violence in Darfur. The event was part of a larger campaign —- Global Days for Darfur —- meant to draw attention to the conflict.

"Human nature doesn't allow for many opportunities like this," said David Shokai, a Sudanese native with the Atlanta International Seventh-day Adventist Mission in Stone Mountain. "We hope this is a beginning for many more events."

Sudanese government-backed militia stand accused of killing 200,000 to 400,000 civilians and driving more than 2.5 million people from their homes.

Sudan agreed last week to allow more than 3,000 heavily armed U.N. and African peacekeepers into Darfur to reinforce 7,000 African Union troops.

Organizers hope people will ask their elected leaders to put pressure on Sudan to stop the bloodshed, said Laura Moye, deputy director for Amnesty International's southern region. "Even the Bush administration and Congress have declared this a genocide," she said. "People of conscience are stunned by the scale of the problem."

The paper banner and its photocopied images of African faces made by Montessori students from Macon served to illustrate the scope of the violence.

To fit 100,000 faces, each needed to be a tiny image. One would have to stop and look closely to tell people's faces were there at all.

The banner was an apt metaphor, perhaps, for a violent conflict competing with Iraq and Afghanistan for the world's attention.

"If Britney Spears were here, we would have millions and millions of people," said Fana Abay, a 21-year-old Ethiopian native studying psychology and sociology at Georgia State University. "But you can't blame anybody. You have to blame the situation and move on."