Thursday
Mar272008
American University students participate in Darfur awareness
Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 5:09PM
During an impassioned speech by Mohamed A. Yahya, Founder and Executive Director of DAMANGA, students at American University participated in the “die-in,” where they lay on the ground to symbolize the dead in Darfur.
At the Eric Friedheim Quadrangle on the main campus of AU, a mock refugee camp was set up, and groups concerned with Darfur had tables with information set up nearby. Among the groups was SaveDarfur.org, a group that says they want students to “Learn More and Take Action.” They said they encourage students and the public to visit their website and send messages to President Bush. They were selling Save Darfur t-shirts and green wrist-bands emblazoned with “Save Darfur. org” and “Not on Our Watch.”
Amnesty International was present as well, handing out buttons that said “End the Killing in Darfur,” and postcards that were pre-addressed to Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State. The postcards, they said, are designed to be mailed by concerned citizens to the office of the Secretary, because hopefully the mass amounts of them might catch some attention. The postcards are preprinted about the concern for Darfur, but included a section to write in the person’s name and address. Amnesty International also said they have an email campaign.
A group from Solar Household Energy, Inc. was prominently displaying different forms of inexpensive solar cookers to be used in preparing meals utilizing heat from the sun. Although it was overcast and drizzling, the pot that was sitting in the middle of the solar display was warm. Patricia McArdle, a member of the Board of Directors, explained that the solar cookers were like ‘crock-pots from the sun’ and not only were they inexpensive to buy, but they could actually be made by people using cardboard and mylar. Mylar, she said, could be something like a balloon or a solar blanket. The solar cookers are inexpensive and would keep the inhabitants of the poorer countries from cutting down so much of their forests.
In addition to the solar cookers, Solar Household Energy was displaying a basket that would hold a boiling pot of water (which would keep it warm for hours, in effect doing the same thing as a crock pot) and a coffee can that had been converted into a tiny stove, called a Rocket Stove. The Rocket was simply a coffee can that had been sliced, bent, and reshaped to harness the power of physics and make it possible for a few burning twigs to be able to boil a pot of water.
At the Eric Friedheim Quadrangle on the main campus of AU, a mock refugee camp was set up, and groups concerned with Darfur had tables with information set up nearby. Among the groups was SaveDarfur.org, a group that says they want students to “Learn More and Take Action.” They said they encourage students and the public to visit their website and send messages to President Bush. They were selling Save Darfur t-shirts and green wrist-bands emblazoned with “Save Darfur. org” and “Not on Our Watch.”
Amnesty International was present as well, handing out buttons that said “End the Killing in Darfur,” and postcards that were pre-addressed to Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State. The postcards, they said, are designed to be mailed by concerned citizens to the office of the Secretary, because hopefully the mass amounts of them might catch some attention. The postcards are preprinted about the concern for Darfur, but included a section to write in the person’s name and address. Amnesty International also said they have an email campaign.
A group from Solar Household Energy, Inc. was prominently displaying different forms of inexpensive solar cookers to be used in preparing meals utilizing heat from the sun. Although it was overcast and drizzling, the pot that was sitting in the middle of the solar display was warm. Patricia McArdle, a member of the Board of Directors, explained that the solar cookers were like ‘crock-pots from the sun’ and not only were they inexpensive to buy, but they could actually be made by people using cardboard and mylar. Mylar, she said, could be something like a balloon or a solar blanket. The solar cookers are inexpensive and would keep the inhabitants of the poorer countries from cutting down so much of their forests.
In addition to the solar cookers, Solar Household Energy was displaying a basket that would hold a boiling pot of water (which would keep it warm for hours, in effect doing the same thing as a crock pot) and a coffee can that had been converted into a tiny stove, called a Rocket Stove. The Rocket was simply a coffee can that had been sliced, bent, and reshaped to harness the power of physics and make it possible for a few burning twigs to be able to boil a pot of water.
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