'Them'

The Darfur region of Sudan has been at war since 2003. The area has been filled by tension, fear and slaughter for over 14 years. A lifetime for some - I am only 16 yet I feel empowered within my nation-state. The inequality between 'us' and 'them' is atrocious. I should not be able to sit here, sympathise about their lives in fleeting commentary, and still embellish my life with technologies and comfort when our relatives (all-be-it distant) can't even find a meal more nutritious than leaves tonight.

We scoff at the lives they lead; their impact on us is merely a brush on the shoulder. But if you whittle our societies 'morals' down through the hardships and losses they have - we would be just the same.

So let me rephrase. There is no 'them.' Only an 'us.'

Women and children wait to be registered prior to a food distribution carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Thonyor, Leer state, South Sudan, February 26, 2017. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola
Women and children wait to be registered prior to a food distribution carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Thonyor, Leer state, South Sudan, February 26, 2017.
REUTERS/Siegfried Modola
In recent weeks, the media has built more public awareness of the outrageous conditions they live in. Campaigns through the UN are heavily promoted and I think it's time we act on them.
For 14 years the landscapes, the ecosystem and the societies of Sudan have increasingly been diminishing. We live in a world where I, in the UK, can buy & sell shares in an American company, making millions, in mere seconds. How come in this same world, after 14 years, almost as many years as I have been alive, we still can't change the course of these people's lives in a few countries, simply because they were born there?

In our irreversibly globalising world, I strongly feel we can no longer dissociate ourselves from each other. We rely on one another too much and can gain so many unidentifiable skills by helping put a smile on another person. So much hope, so much kindness & so much wisdom. Our world could one day thrive in unity if we could simply fit a fleeting thought of hope into each day.

Now is not the time to save them; it's the time to save us.

Click here to find out more
Click here to donate to the UN's humanitarian fund in Sudan

H _ M
    :)

Bibliography
http://www.wvi.org/sudan/article/malnutrition-continues-affect-children-sudan

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