The Power of Charity

The question that I am most often asked about Darfur is what people can really do to help. We talk a lot about “spreading awareness” and “taking action”, but to most people these are just buzz words and catch phrases with no practical implications. Most often this takes the form of signing petitions and writing letters to politicians in the hope that they can do something to stop the killing in Darfur. For the most part, I hate to say, these efforts have been unsuccessful and even when they produce results, they are too slow for the average person on the street to see them as a valuable product of their own action, especially when they’ve signed the same petition and written the same letter over and over again.

So, how do people take more direct action to stop the suffering in Darfur? Well, as much as I would like to advocate taking up arms and literally defending the people suffering there, that just isn’t realistic. It is with their wallet that the average person can make a difference. Maybe that sounds a bit clichéd and people are a bit sick of hearing that they should give money to some new Third World cause, it really can make a difference in Darfur.

Think about it: the IDP camps of Darfur are now being used as weapons against the people inside them. Hunger is as much a weapon of the Sudanese government and Janjaweed as are bullets and bombs. This means that every dollar donated to humanitarian aid for Darfur is a life-saving dollar. Darfur presents a remarkable opportunity to people who do not otherwise know how to help: actively resisting genocide just by donating money.

Here are a few charities providing aid to the people of Darfur:

In Canada: Oxfam Canadian Students for Darfur Appeal and in the United States: International Rescue Committee, and in the United Kingdom: Red Cross