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Exhibit Darfur artist and actor activist Mia Farrow plans a hunger strike to help people in Darfur
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"Mia and Zam Zam Kids" by Mia Farrow. Photo below "Father and Son" by Heidi McGinness.
The genocide and displacement of over two million people in Darfur inspired actor Mia Farrow to begin a hunger strike next week. The crisis in Darfur has been described by many as “genocide by attrition,” because of the horrendous effects of the war and the gradual decrease in strength through constant stress. Last month the Sudanese government expelled thirteen international aid agencies while thousands of homeless people continued to arrive at overcrowded refugee camps.
The UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said the expulsion of the aid agencies now puts over one million people at “life-threatening risk”. These agencies were forced to leave when the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in Darfur. To date UN officials report that up to 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur and more than 2.7 million have been displaced.
Last weekend my husband and I attended the Art for Darfur event held in Dallas. It’s a movement for Darfur awareness that began in 2007 by two Southern Methodist University college students Kristin Schutz and Tiana Lightfoot. As we viewed the photographs in Exhibit Darfur we were moved by the images and the ongoing plight of these beautiful people. Part of the program featured performance art entitled “Darfur Now” written by the director of SMU’s Perkins Youth School of Theology, Tonya Y. Burton. An artist painted to her words. Below is an excerpt from her work:
Where you step over the bodies trapped in violence
Dishonored by the world’s silence
Their hands, feet and fingers meet together on the ground
Signs to detours that once held the laughter and life
A village of sons, daughters, husbands and wivesAnd this is Darfur now
Are we simply human beings with no sense of solidarity?
Are we nomad global tribes connected ever so slightly through the sinews of our own communities?
They raise their hands in surrender
Calling out to the mountains which offer their burning ashes
send a smoke signal to the world,
“come help us”
But no rescue was near
Are they ever coming here?
No doctors, no open borders, no fortress only mortars"
For more info:
Update Article Hunger Strike Ends World Reaction to Darfur
Slideshow Art for Darfur and Exhibit Darfur
Exhibit Darfur a photographic journey
Art for Darfur Movement
Save Darfur
Amnesty International
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