The Connection Between the Mid-West and Darfur..

Today I am again putting off talking about more of Ann Curry’s links. I wanted to discuss a story my aunt Lisa had sent me. I didn’t have a link to the story so I wanted to briefly summarize it.

The photos to the left are from an advertisement done by the Save Darfur organization I have frequently discussed. The ad was in the January 25 edition of Rolling Stone. I was impressed to see that it was a full-page ad.

Anyway, back to the story. The story by Susan Saulny is titled,
”After Darfur, Starting Anew in the Midwest.”

Apparently Fort Wayne, Indiana, among other Indiana cities is home to as many as 300 people from Darfur. There is an organization called Darfur Peace and Development in Fort Wayne. It is a nonprofit organization

The first Darfuri families came in the early 90’s. There are many industrial jobs in the area. There are also many other diverse groups. The city’s population is 250,000 and 77 languages are spoken at the public school. They still face problems of misunderstood cultural practices, as imagined. But the article said most feel generally welcome.

Many people in the community are becoming activists for Darfur as well.

Fawzia Suilman is a 24-year old woman discussed in the story. She is from the Darfur region and had her home burned to the ground by the janjaweed militia in the summer of 2005. Many of her family members were killed. In the article she says, “I cry every day about how my family died.”
She has a 1-year-old son Zakaria, but lost her husband in the chaos of 2005.

Someone at a refugee camp in Chad told Suilman about Indiana and his cousin that she should get in touch with if she were to go there.

One of the things I found most touching was this quote from Suilman, “I keep the pictures of my family on my refrigerator to remember when we could not eat. It makes me sick. I do not like to remember.”

I thought this story was very shocking. Of all places I could not imagine that people from Darfur would go to Indiana. But it was nice to hear that they were so welcomed. I could not imagine how hard it was for Suilman to adjust. America is clearly very different than her home. I think one of the hardest things, well maybe not in this specific community, would be remembering your family and hoping your husband was alive, while you are in America where those problems seem so far away to the rest of this nation.