Helping Hands’ Weekend Walk for Darfur

            Over the years, BSGE’s Helping Hands Committee has been helping raise money for the Save Darfur Coalition. A big part of their do­nations to the orga­nization will include money raised from this Saturday’s SOS Walk for Dar­fur at Socrates Sculpture Park. The money will be used to buy medical supplies, healthcare and in general, for the 2.8 million peo­ple that have been displaced due to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The genocide in Darfur is currently a very dire situation and according to Peter Wilson, who runs BSGE’s Helping Hands committee, any event to raise awareness will help “put pressure on the government to do something about the genocide.” Since 2003, there have hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and the mortality figures are steadily rising. These murders are mainly a result of armed conflict between the Jan­jaweed militia groups and re­gional tribes.

It is very important for all of us, as teenagers, to, as Peter explained,  “see ourselves as agents for change.” We all know this genocide taking place in Darfur is unjust and seeing as we cannot physically go to Darfur and stop the genocide, it is impera­tive to hold events such as the SOS Walk. It is vital to understand that ev­erything we do can affect others and help them and the SOS Walk is for a great cause. So if you do go, you will learn a lot about the current situation in Darfur, and help refugees rebuild their lives with your donations.

This Saturday, teams of at least five members will participate in this walk and at least one mem­ber of a team must walk the entire time from 9am to 6pm. The Help­ing Hands Committee suggests that each member donate $25. There will be food and entertainment, as well as many other things being sold to help raise money. The SOS Walk is expected to turn into a real success, with an expected 500-800 people attending, most of them from local high schools. The Helping Hands committee is also spreading the word with lots of flyers and posters, hoping to get more people to attend and help out. However, Peter says that no matter how successful this event is, they hope that they don’t have to turn it into an annual event and hopefully the genocide will end. Either way, it is really important to help raise money for Darfur, so help out by going to the SOS Walk.