Garden School learns about genocide in Darfur

The Garden School in Jackson Heights held its own efforts to take a stand against the genocide currently going on in Darfur.
As part of it, the school held a colloquium on Thursday, January 25 that featured Ruth Messinger, the president and executive director of American Jewish World Service and former Manhattan Borough President.
“Darfur is a region in Sudan, Africa where 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been exiled from their homes into the barren desert,” explained David Wexler, the president of the Garden School’s student council who organized the efforts. “It is a place that desperately needs our support.”
As Messinger addressed members of the student body, she explained that the genocide in Darfur has been going on now for about four years. She also spoke about how genocides have been repeated throughout history, even after the Holocaust when people said “never again.”
“For never again to mean something, Darfur is the time and the place,” Messinger said.
Messinger also went on to explain that the killings are being done by the government and the government’s militia, the Janjaweed. She also said that, during some of the bombings, any item that can either smash straw housing or kill a person or animal is being dropped out of airplanes.
“As gruesome as what I just told you is and how upsetting it is that this can happen in the world we inhabit, there’s lots that each of you can do to help,” Messinger told the students. She continued, “You can stand up, you can take action, you can intervene, you can find out what the things are that need to be done, you can believe in the power of any one person to make change in the world, which is certainly the core of what I believe.”
Joshua Spiro, a student at Oberlin and member of Students Taking Action Now for Darfur (STAND), also spoke during the event. Spiro talked about some of the actions that students can take to make a difference. Among his suggestions were holding educational events to raise awareness, having fundraisers and writing to elected officials asking them to take more action to help the situation.
Along with the educational forum, students raised money for Darfur through a jeans sale, where students paid $3 to wear jeans to school, and a bake sale. So far, Wexler said that they have raised more than $2,750.