A Continent in Crisis

BY MARISSA CARNEY

Photo by Lee Ann De Reus

It is a scientific fact: some things have a gravitational pull on other things. The earth pulls on the moon. The moon pulls on the tides. And then there are some places that can have the same sort of effect on people. Just ask Lee Ann De Reus, as she can attest that she feels the constant pull of a country some 4,000 miles away.

De Reus is an associate professor of human development and family studies and women's studies at Penn State Altoona. And while she adores teaching, what seems to validate her existence even more is the international traveling she does and the connections she makes with people of different cultures.

In June 2007, De Reus boarded a plane headed to two African countries, each touched by poverty and pain, yet beautiful and amazing in their own ways. Once there, she met hard-working men, women, and children full of joy and appreciation for education.

Teaching in Tanzania

Photo by Lee Ann De Reus

Her first stop was to a rural part of Tanzania for three weeks where De Reus, other faculty, and about two dozen Penn State students conducted an AIDS/HIV education workshop for elementary and high school teachers. Because the teachers have limited access to accurate information regarding such a prominent and deadly disease, they found it rewarding to help clear up myths, answer questions, and openly discuss the issue. The Penn State crew also assisted the teachers in developing lesson plans centered on AIDS/HIV education to use in their classrooms.

De Reus and her group also were able to help some of the villagers outside of the workshop in a wide variety of ways. Penn State students coordinated leg surgery for a 14-year-old boy to help improve his physical health and consequently his future opportunities for school and work. A young man's alcoholic father had sold the family's goats and cattle, so they gave the family two new goats. They set up a program to provide teachers with much-needed school supplies and textbooks, and also helped a young man get a sponsorship so that he could continue school and become a librarian.

"The Tanzanians we met really have an appreciation and an intentional simplicity that we don't have in our lives. There is an emphasis on what is really most important—family and friends and a connection to the land. There is a rhythm of life that's in tune to nature that we've totally distorted with our nine-to-five jobs, a different perspective that we lack," says De Reus.

After the workshop, De Reus stayed on in Africa. She made her way to eastern Chad and the Gaga Refugee camp, home to about 15,000 people seeking safety from the violent, on-going genocide between Sudanese government troops and their allies, the Janjaweed, and ethnic African rebels. The Janjaweed are accused of widespread atrocities against ethnic African villagers.

Darfur Refugees

De Reus spent three days talking with twenty-five women living at the camp. The women had been forced to flee their Darfur, Sudan, homes, often with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

These were women who had watched their villages burn, and their family members brutalized, kidnapped, or killed. Some of these women were beaten and raped, and they had traveled up to three months on foot through the bush to cross the border. And these women were just twenty-five of the more than two million people finding their way out of Sudan and into relative safety.

"They were truly amazing in terms of their resilience; their strength was really moving. Their stories were just heart-wrenching as they shared with us what they had gone through," states De Reus. But once at the refugee camp, life for the women was still physically and emotionally exhausting.

According to De Reus, the crowded camp had minimal amounts of food, water, and medical care. The housing was inadequate; strong winds and rains often knocked over the flimsy tarps, tents, and mud huts used as shelter. Sometimes the women's husbands would leave them for younger females at the camp. Sometimes the women were attacked as they ventured outside of the camp to collect firewood.

Of course, staying at the camp meant there was no work for the women and no way for them to earn money.

And although some organizations have set up schools in the camp, it is extremely difficult to find people who can teach and provide proper materials to the thousands of children living there.

Hope and Joy

Photo by Lee Ann De Reus

De Reus marveled at the women's strength and their ability to still find joy and laughter in life through their children.

"To see them still functioning—and functioning well—and being able to raise families despite the hopelessness of returning to the lives they've always known, to me is unbelievable and really speaks to their resilience," says De Reus of the refugee women.

Many harbored hopes that they would see their missing family members again. In running from Janjeweed attacks, it is all too common for families to get separated in the mayhem or for children to be kidnapped. One woman De Reus interviewed was 25-years-old and had five children. She lost her 11-year-old son while fleeing her village. The mother ended up recognizing his shirt and pants that somehow made their way to the Gaga refugee camp several months later; she believes the boy was leaving a message for her that he was still alive and that they would be reunited one day.

In America, there are people who sue for millions over a spilled cup of coffee. But these women—who have seen and felt the worst of humanity—want nothing more than to have their land, cattle, homes, and possessions replaced. They want some sort of reparation; beyond that, it just doesn't really matter to them.

Leaving those twenty-five women behind and coming back to America proved to be a hard transition for De Reus. But she says she left with an even greater resolve to bring awareness to people back home about the situation in Darfur and at the refugee camps. "After hearing their stories, I feel a tremendous responsibility to the women. As someone who is privileged, I need to do what I can on their behalf, to let others know what's happening, and to change the situation for them."

How You Can Help

Solar Cookers International; www.solarcookers.org
SCI has enabled 30,000 families in Africa to cook with the sun's energy, freeing women and children from the burdens of gathering wood and carrying it for miles.

Jewish World Watch Backpack Project; www.jewishworldwatch.org
Filled with shoes, books, school supplies, soap and toothpaste, the backpack allows children in refugee camps to make the most of school under the most difficult of circumstances.

Save Darfur: Central PA; lad12@psu.edu
The mission of Save Darfur: Central PA is to connect people locally with the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.