It’s long been kind of an orphan among international issues, crying out for a solution. But the genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan continues.

Indeed, there was this last week, from a New York Times story on efforts by the United Nations to put a fact-finding team on the ground there:

Andrew S. Natsios, President Bush’s envoy for Darfur, said Wednesday [Feb. 14] that pro-government Janjaweed militias blamed for most of the killing, raping and pillaging were planning new actions — a threat, he said, that could drive out aid workers and close camps, producing a “bloodbath.”

This Thursday WEDNESDAY night, a teacher and some students at Rumson-Fair Haven High School hope to call attention to the crisis. They’re hosting an event that’s free and open to the public at which a Darfurian will provide eyewitness accounts to what’s going on there. There will be other speakers, too, as well as photos from the refugee camps and means for participants to make relief contributions.

The event was the idea of two students who helped organize it with social studies teacher Megan Arnone, we’re told.

From an announcement about the event:

“Night for Darfur will be an opportunity for members of the community to learn about the conflict and what they can do to help bring an end to it,” said Arnone…

“[Night for Darfur] is a truly home-grown, grassroots-style effort on the part of the students to bring education and activism to the larger community in which they live,” said Arnone. “This is truly an example of students ‘thinking globally and acting locally.’ “

The event is sponsored by RFH’s STAND chapter, its Character Education Council, and the Darfur Rehabilitation Project, a New Jersey-based organization made up of Darfurians displaced by the conflict. It will run from 7p to 9p in the high school gymnasium.

The video excerpt above is from the Save Darfur Coalition.

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