raising awareness about Darfur, Sudan

[kimmy]

my sister showed me this website a few days ago, and basically they sell stickers/shirts/car magnets that are supposed to 'raise awareness' about genocide in Darfur, Sudan. it says on the website that the funds they recieve will go to making more items to raise awareness and that it isn't actually sent to any type of aide program for the Sudanese.

that's all well and good that they're trying to raise awareness about the things happening in the Middle East, especially in Darfur..but wouldn't it be better if that money was spent on the people rather than 'raising awareness' about their problem? or if all these people are so extremely into fixing this problem, wouldn't it be more effective for them to join the military and go take action instead of just sitting here in America asking EVERYONE else to go take care of it?

thoughts?

 

[Hawkeye]

my sentiments exactly. But this is the tangled web that we have to be aware of:
1) Raising awareness brings in money to send to people
2) Other than that it is pretty much useless
3) The money sent to people in Darfar etc usually goes to the "thugs" and the people who are part of the problem not the solution

many of the people never see a dime or any reaction to the money given to them. It's funneled through the governments etc. Even the charities etc have a hard time.

When I went to Africa, we had loads of supplies to bring directly to the people. However when we got detained they wanted to search through our bags. We were fortunate one guy was a member of the church we were going to bring the supplies to and the lady we were talking to and he convinced them to look on the top trunk.

Keep in mind we had prescription drugs donated by a pharmacy, we had tons of tylenol, alcohol swabs, food everything hidden. You name it we had it hidden and if they had found it we would've been goners. The top trunk had our sleeping bags.

We got off scott free then went on and got interogatted in another city and some of us had to lie about our professions. We had one guy who worked at Lockheed and he had to say he was a teacher at a school. I had to lie and say I was a student. One guy was an Army reserve guy and he had to lie and say he was a hardware store clerk.

Luckily they didn't check our baggage.

Everything that is sent to Africa (and anywhere for that matter) is subject to the government to get its hands on first. The ONLY way to be assured that it gets to the actual people who need it is to send it with a mission group with a very strong mission program who will actually get it to people.

Thats my opinion though.

 

[Beauty Mark]

I think some of the money (most of it, actually) should go towards the actual cause, vs. "raising awareness." I personally don't understand the idea of raising awareness, but it turns out many people do forget or don't know about certain situations. I think if you're confronted with something enough times, even if it's a bumper sticker or pin, you're more likely to do something about it, ie. donate money or supplies. I think there's also some optimism tied in that raising awareness will generate political action and gov'ts will help the people in need.

This is cynical and judgmental, but there are places who profit off of tragedies by creating these items for awareness. That's

 

[Uchina]

I really wish our government would do SOMETHING about it. Maybe if Darfur had oil, those people would have homes and food by now.

 

[fredinbed]

i think sometimes though, awareness is a good thing. some times when it is a political issue you can throw as much money at it as you like but nothing will change. having people in the western world talking about it and writing in the media about it can put pressure on our leaders to try and do something about it.

although, nothing annoys me more than when some millionaire celebrity goes on an awareness raising crusade trying to make me and millions of other people who live from one pay day to another feel guilty about not handing over our money.