Washington Post

The Washington Post multimedia package professor Matson told me to look at broke my heart. It is by far the most informative package I’ve seen on the crisis. Though it is based on areas in Chad, outside of Darfur, it captures the atrocities at their worst.

I like this site because it is simple but very informative with 360 views of the camps that you can zoom in on to see the specific details. There are also three video packages from areas that are highlighted on the map. The sights and stories are horrific which, ironically, in my mind makes the footage great. The bottom also has links including one that gives you updated information. The pictures above are the ones that hurt me the most.

I liked the first video the best. I loved how there was no narrative; the pictures and the people’s stories told enough. I loved the singing in between by the children too. It amazed me how these people can still have so much passion and love for their country when these horrible things are going on. It makes me look at the U.S. a little differently.

The first woman in that first video talks about having to protect her children, and which ones she can. Can you imagine making that choice? And then living on without your husband in a trashy camp?

Seeing the next woman’s story literally made me cry. The woman in this story is clearly disturbed and ashamed to show her face. How she even lives from day to day amazes me and will have my praise for the rest of my life. She was held down by 11 men and raped by nine. She keeps repeating, “they raped me, they raped me.” And then proceeds to say, “it would have been better if they killed me.” How can any human being do that to someone? What kind of sick twisted people are in this world? And why why why aren’t we stopping it?!

The next woman in the video was struggling to save her baby. She has to feed him “animal food” and doesn’t know if he’ll live or not. How do you find the will to carry on? I don’t think I ever could.

Scenes like this upset me so greatly and I know I ask a lot of questions. I know they’re not going to be answered but I just wish more people would ask them. I get especially upset when I tell people about my blog for Darfur and they laugh or have no interest in it what so ever. How do we live with ourselves without doing something? To let people live in those conditions? I’m having a hard time doing so.

On a final note, in one of the other video’s they discuss how the U.S. government calls Darfur genocide. While Darfur isn’t receiving a significant amount of aide, these areas are hardly receiving any. If we call Darfur genocide, what do we call Chad?