Do One Thing

In his book, The Translator, Daoud Hari describes a refugee camp on the Chad-Sudan border of the Darfur region in this way. 

“Familiar smells and the low rumble of a great crowd greeted us as we rolled down the windows: babies crying but also children laughing and running after us, stretching out their fingers to touch ours, mothers calling for their children to be careful, the crunch of bundles of firewood being unloaded from the backs of donkeys, the braying of those donkeys, the smoke and smell of a thousand little fires, of spiced and mint teas brewing, of hot cooking oils and overheated, dirty children. A gauze of this sound, smoke and dust extended over the tangled nest as far as one cared to look, except where the women wore their beautiful colors, which stood out through the sticks: clean and bright reds, oranges, yellows, brilliant blues and greens. The women of Africa, as the world knows, have a genius for color, and they decorated this place with themselves, as they always do.”

With the world's focus on Haiti, it can be easy to forget that other crisis situations across the globe have not righted themselves overnight.

For the month of February, do one thing to help Sudanese families living in Chadian refugee camp.

Save a jar or a plastic water bottle that you would have thrown away, and use it as a collection bowl for stray change. $15 in loose change can provide an energy efficient stove that helps protect refugees from the violence they face simply trying to gather wood for cooking fires.