Darfur situation frustrates kids

Funding for school is far from enough as killing goes on

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 18, 2007 at midnight

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They've been working on this project for a year, so the eighth- graders were slightly flummoxed with the question posed by their teacher.

"Now what?" Sara Kornfeld asked last week.

The class at Herzl-RMHA School in Denver was mostly quiet. The students had just spent the better part of two semesters raising about $9,500 to rebuild a school in Sudan, but were still well shy of the $25,000 needed to complete the task.

The social action project they'd undertaken - trying to help stop the genocide in Darfur - well, people were still being killed on a daily basis. And finally, the students' semester was ending and the promise of summer beckoned.

But many of these students have a connection that won't let them let go that easily.

"This impacts me because of my ancestry. My grandma talks about how her parents were captured by Nazis," said Ashley Mazin. "The janjaweed are just like the Nazis trying to kill off the races."

So Mazin, 14, plans to spend her summer continuing to raise money for a school destroyed by the janjaweed - the Sudanese government-backed fighters responsible for the genocide of black Africans in the Darfur region. Activists estimate that more than 200,000 have been killed.

An additional 2.5 million have fled to neighboring countries since 2003 and are living in refugee camps.

The question - what now - isn't just a challenge for the students.

Even Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, who visited Kornfeld's class recently with state Sen. Peter Groff, seemed a little uncertain about an answer.

Romanoff helped lead the push to get Colorado to divest its public pension fund of companies doing business with Sudan. Kornfeld's class, Romanoff and Groff were all there earlier this year when Gov. Bill Ritter signed the divestment bill into law.

For Groff, the answer to Kornfeld's question has been to publicly pressure China by suggesting that the U.S. Olympic team boycott the 2008 games in Beijing if the superpower doesn't stop doing business with Sudan. Romanoff said he wanted to do more as well.

"I think about this a lot - what if your grandkids ask what you did to stop the genocide," Romanoff asked. "I'd like to have an answer other than I changed the channel."

Many of the students, who will be starting high school next year, said they will continue to work toward building the school in Sudan - a tangible goal to help the children who currently are stuck in a refugee camp.

Doniel Kaye, 14, said the impact of what is happening is easily lost in the miles separating Denver and Darfur - until he saw photos and videos of living conditions there.

He was able to draw a line between that and the history he's learned about the Holocaust throughout his time at a Jewish school.

"It makes you realize the severity of it," he said. "That it's happening again."

Kornfeld wants her social action students to keep pushing beyond the end of the semester to try to make a difference.

She points to how far they've come - e-mails from Mohamed Sherif, the man helping to shepherd the new school's building in Darfur; a letter from actor George Clooney acknowledging their efforts; and contacts from other schools around the country looking to do something to stop the genocide.

To make her point, she addressed the class as they began thinking about their upcoming summer break.

"Just like the genocide isn't taking a summer vacation, neither are you," she said. "Even if you're gone for parts of the summer, I will be contacting you to see if you're available."

Many said they would be as they try to answer the hard question.

On a mission

• Students spent the better part of two semesters raising about $9,500 to rebuild a school in Sudan but were still shy of the $25,000 needed to complete the task.

In their own words

Max Miller, 14, of Denver

The thing that bothers me the most is they're innocent people being killed and they didn't do any harm to the people killing them.

My great-grandmother left Germany when she was around my age right before the Holocaust broke out, and my grandmother's aunt escaped by pretending she was dead. She actually escaped on a hay truck. These are stories that I've grown up with, learning.

Every day in life, being Jewish, there are times you can relate to not being liked because of who you are when you were born.

Mia Kutner, 14, of Denver

I feel like genocide will always be around because human beings have biases against certain people - not always to the level of genocide, though. But at least if you try to make a difference, a positive outcome can happen. By doing nothing, nothing will be accomplished. Maybe this will keep on happening, but at least I tried.

How to help

• If you are interested in contributing to the school's Darfur project, donations can be sent to:

DCJE

Change the World: It Just Takes Cents, Attn: Sara Kornfeld

2450 S. Wabash St.

Denver, CO 80231

• Checks should be made out to DCJE, with "Darfur school project" written in the memo line.

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5236

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