Connect with Charity: Women in Darfur*
* While almost everything on Busy Bee Lifestyle is family friendly, this article probably shouldn’t be shared with your children.
Around the holidays, we are often inundated with requests from charities on every front and every day seems to bring a new group in need. It was right before Christmas that I read about an organization with a very unique appeal, but I put it to the side, too busy with the needs at hand.
This summer, though, I have had a chance to revisit an extraordinary agency dedicated to helping the women in Darfur. The area of Darfur in the western Sudan is the site of refugee camps for individuals who have been displaced by their government. Since February of 2003 over 400,000 have been killed and 2.5 million people displaced by means of rape, organized starvation and mass murder. (For greater detail see genocideintervention.net). Violence, disease and displacement continue to kill thousands of innocent Darfurians every month.
Consider Donating a Fuel Efficient Stove
The women in the refugee camps spend most of their day gathering scarce firewood to fuel cooking ovens. The search for firewood requires women to leave the relative safety of the camp, exposing them to greater danger in the form of sexual assault or attack.
In response to this problem, Berkeley University and CHF have designed a fuel efficient stove that uses 75% less fuel than traditional stoves. The stoves can be made by local residents using locally available materials and not only preserve limited resources, but provide a chance for families to eat meals that they had been skipping due to a lack of fuel. The cost to fund a fuel efficient stove for a vulnerable family is only $30.
In my communication with CHF regarding this article, I learned that the organization cannot spend their valuable and limited resources on advertising and truly rely on “word of mouth” to promote their efforts. When I wrote that I would share this story with Busy Bee readers, the gratitude from CHF was overwhelming!
Darfur is so far away and the atrocities are so severe that it’s easy to think that we are unable to help. But – here’s a simple and concrete way to make a difference in the world and to help women who could never imagine the ease with which we cook our meals and feed our families! I know that this ranks as a serious topic for Busy Bee, but it is truly worthwhile!
To make a donation
Go to chfinternational.org , Building Stoves and Saving Lives in Darfur, Sudan: The Fuel Efficient Stove Project. Click on Make a Donation Now.
With so many across the globe in need of our support, Busy Bee is dedicated to exploring and researching additional ways to help women in the United States and throughout the world.
Tags: darfur, women in Darfur, Darfur women, donation
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Thanks for letting readers know about this important charitable effort! I have an idea for you – if you need a gift idea for someone who is tough to buy for consider donating the solar stove in their name. I’d be really touched if someone did that for me!