A ‘Symbolic’ Fast for Sudan

Just the price of a cup of coffee is enough to help a Sudanese refugee avoid the potentially deadly search for firewood, say the student organizers of a weeklong donation drive.

The campaign, led by the Harvard Darfur Action Group, calls itself DarfurFast—but doesn’t ask students to give up eating.

“The concept of fasting is more symbolic,” said Firth M. McEachern ’08, treasurer of the group. “People are donating for the price of a latte, a taxi ride, a movie ticket, or chocolate.”

Through this Friday, students passing by the Science Center have been pledging to give up one of these items and donate $3.

The money helps to pay escorts for women in Darfur who need to leave their refugee camps to collect firewood, organizers said. The program falls under the umbrella of the Genocide Intervention Network, an organization founded by Swarthmore College students in 2004.

“Outside the immediate spheres of these camps there is anarchy,” said McEachern. “It’s where African Union troops do not have control and women risk their lives collecting firewood because they could be abducted, raped and even killed by Janjaweed militia.”

The money also provides alternative energy sources such as solar-powered cookers to reduce the need to search for firewood.

The campaign leaves some perplexed: A student attracted by bell ringing and shouting volunteers outside the Science Center yesterday didn’t know if he should actually fast.

“It has been the source of some confusion,” McEachern said, “People think, ‘What? I have to fast for something?’ Fasting sounds a lot more severe than what we’re asking.”

Amy E. Smekar ’11 collected donations alongside McEachern.

“I think this is a good cause because people think there are a lot of causes that don’t have an impact,” Smekar said, “but this is something that will help these women.”

This Thursday. the group is sponsoring a “Wake Up and Jam” concert at the Queen’s Head Pub. The group will be collecting donations outside the door.

Darfur Fast is co-sponsored by the the Harvard African Students Association, the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship, the Harvard College Human Rights Advocates, the Harvard College Coalition for Ugandan Peace, Students Taking on Poverty, and the Harvard College Democrats.