September’s Darfur Heroes

The Herzl RMHA Middle School Grade 8 service learning classes have always been known for fun projects. Our teacher, Sara Kornfeld, offered us the opportunity to take action through in depth learning about a subject of our choice. Being empowered to choose what we wanted to learn, we elected to study about the conflict in Sudan- especially in Darfur. Being Jewish, many of us grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, we had a strong desire to “do something” to help the people of Darfur, particularly our counterparts, the children. We finally settled on collecting loose change to help with education for the Darfuri children. We named our campaign “Change the world. It just takes cents” TM. Then we worked in groups and individually to create a meaningful logo and decorated 100 white unmarked milk cartons, solicited from the local dairy, for change collection with the computer created logo in the hope of raising Darfur awareness and in the hope of rebuilding the D-Kaire school in thrice-destroyed Korma, Darfur. Without realizing it, we had become a unified team working respectfully together towards a common goal benefiting others. We did school work without it even feeling like school work. We needed and wanted to do more.

Our campaign included many steps:

• writing a proposal and a supporting power point using photographs and famous quotes we had researched on the web;
• creating t-shirt, letter writing and phone call campaigns, but only after we analyzed and practiced how to address the stranger on the other side of the telephone, the protocol of writing to political, state and municipal figures, directors of agencies, celebrities and friends. We wrote to sports stars and popular personalities such as Oprah, Don Cheadle, Mia Farrow, often with little or no response. We DID, however, receive a letter of acknowledgment and support from George Clooney. Also, we needed to learn how to select and create a saleable item, how to negotiate the purchase of goods for resale, how to create a budget and how to publicize and market our goods;
• meeting Suad Mansour, a Darfuri refugee and activist now living in the U.S., and hearing her story. We immediately knew that Suad had to visit Colorado to tell her story to as many students as possible at the first Denver Middle School Forum, denouncing the genocide in Darfur. Special guest speakers invited to join us were Lado Jurkin, a Lost Boy (Found Man) of Sudan, city officials, other educators and a young Sudanese refugee attending the Denver Annunciation School. Our “Change the world…” TM group presented the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. During her visit to Denver, Suad also gave testimony at Colorado’s Legislature hearing on Divestment and met with Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff. The press was informed of our efforts and the Forum;
• doing and hearing presentations at our school for and by our Mayor, a lobbyist, a history specialist educator, Senator, Speaker of the House and others. Because of our activism, we were invited to speak at the Global Days for Darfur rally at the end of April 2007 in Denver. The Governor also invited us to stand alongside him as he signed the Colorado Divestment Bill. Students, working in small groups, visited with activists and educators who guided our efforts: Mr Mohamed Yayha (Damanga Coalition), Mr Scott Wisor (Senior National Field Organizer for Sudan Divestment Task Force), Ben Drexler (STAND), Mrs. Roz Duman (Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action), Ruth Messinger (American Jewish World Service), and Fran Sterling (Facing History and Ourselves);
• writing emails to our D-Kaire School counterparts and being thrilled to eventually receive a response from Mohamed Sherif, the head of the Korma Association living at the Abu Shok refugee camp, who had been receiving and translating our e-mails for the children;
• receiving press coverage: Our efforts had been featured in each of the local newspapers. After reading this article on June 18, 2007, an “angel” offered “Change the world. It just takes cents.” TM a challenge grant if we were to raise $15,000 by September 30, 2007. Everyone pulled out all stops and raised all the funds needed by July 17, 2007, over 2 months ahead of time! We ran the money through our school’s books, and opened a dedicated bank account at the Young Americans’ Bank for young adults under the age of 21, where we learned about financial management.

Our year of Service Learning has been a successful and collaborative effort with everyone’s contributions determined by their strengths: some of us made phone calls, created artwork, wrote letters, did web research, created power point presentations, sold lemonade or collected money with the help of loose change grids, attended meetings, contacted sponsors, agencies and schools, while others were in charge of signs and the press. We all celebrated our accomplishments and reviewed our shortcomings each step of the way The experience was also mutually beneficial. The funds have been raised for the D-Kaire school and we had an opportunity to learn through action, by doing the right thing. We learned that youth have a powerful voice and that we have the power to influence people and the world to do the right thing. More importantly, we learned that we can be role models even at this young age. Our initiative, “Change the World. It just takes cents” TM, brought a new dimension to and understanding of service learning to our school. Our educator was asked to create a resource guide and curriculum so that others can join us without having to recreate the wheel. This has been well received by Save Darfur, Genocide Intervention Network, Damanga, Darfur Alert, Facing History and Ourselves and educators who attended a national teacher’s conference in August 2007. Linda Hooper, the principal from “Paperclips” is also on board with our efforts and has adopted our program.

The second generation of grade 8 students (2007-2008) will continue with our initiative. They will study the background as we did and focus more closely on the refugees, service their needs, and learn how other countries are providing refuge to these displaced and physically and emotionally wounded people. Even though some of us have moved on to ninth grade and are sad to “pass the torch”, we have learned a valuable life lesson. We understand better the situation in Sudan, the process of “doing the right thing” and philanthropy, and will continue to stand up and speak out against man’s inhumanity to man. After all, it just takes cents!

Talia Halfon, Generation I “Change the world. It just takes cents” TM student
Yael Kornfeld, Generation II “Change the world. It just takes cents” TM student