Can you imagine what its like to live your life in fear everyday? This is how the people of Darfur live their lives because of the attacks of the rebel forces on their villages. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine having the threat of an attack on you and your family at any time. This fear slowly will take over your entire life.
Can you even start to think of what its like to not be safe in your own country, in your own home? The residents of Darfur are fleeing their home in large numbers because they can only reach a safe haven by traveling the long arduous journey to one of their neighboring countries like Chad.
To get the full affect for what is happening I think that you need to hear the stories of some real life refugees and what they have had to face amd try to overcome. The events these people have witnessed is going to leave them scarred for life. Imagine seeing your family killed, taken from you, your home being burnt down, and barely escaping with your life while others around you were shot down and brutally killed. The women in your family having a large chance of being raped and the youths being taken, brainwashed and corrupted into being a part of the rebel forces. Most of the refugees, if they will survive the trek at all will make it by their lonesome. It is very unlikely that a family will make it, usually others witnessed their family and loved ones being massacred in front of them. Try and imagine what it is to be a citizen of the Sudan. If this has not happened to you the fear of it alone is enough to leave you unstable. These refugees all will need major psychiatric help for years to overcome what they have been through, but unfortunately majority of these people will not have access to this.
17 year old Darfur victim Aziza is lucky enough to make it out alive and tell her tragedy. While collecting firewood one day with 6 other women when suddenly three men on horseback started to chase them. She was caught and bit on the neck and arm to mark her. This signifies that she was a rape victim. He choked her by tieing a veil around her neck and asked her which tribe she was from and as part of the ethnic cleansing goal he told her she didnt belong there and told her the land was theirs. The black people are thought of as lesser people in the mind of the Arabs and that is part of the reason for the conflict going on in this region. Then he aggressively pushed her down and raped her. Aziza now is waiting out to see if she is pregnant or not and does not have a way to terminate the pregnancy. Her friends have shunned her and now is worried about never being able to get a husband. Her story is one of the thousands of cries there are from women who have been raped throughout the Darfur crisis. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15718844/
If you want a visual image, look at the picture: http://www.interfaithnews.net/darfur/images/wounded-usaid.jpg
Imagine being 12 yrs old and being a rape victim. This is before the age you can really comprehend what has happened to you. The look of misery is evident in her eyes. She looks lost and devastated, this poor child will never be the same.
81% of the women who seeked treatment in refugee camps said that the men who raped them were in military uniform and used weapons as a way to force their assault. For more information go to http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/darfur/uploads/releases/Rape%20in%20Darfur%20MSF%20Report%20March%202005.pdf
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Does every single person in Darfur live this way? Do they live like this every single day? Why don't these people just get out of town or rally up together and fight back? Are they brought up good enough to try and fight back? Is it the way that they live why they are being beaten and raped and not fighting back? One thing that comes into my head is how can anyone do that to someone and still live with themselves every day?
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