Rowan PRSSA Darfur Division Makes Great Strides in Helping Darfur

By Gregory Richter

Perhaps public relations can save the world. Today, Nov. 10, 2008, Rowan University hosts a discussion with Darfuri refugee Garelnabi Abusikin in the group’s first Darfur Day event. Of course, while Sudan’s violence won’t end tomorrow evening (or anytime soon), I am confident in the work of the PRSSA Darfur Division.

The group raised important funds for humanitarian aid since it began a year ago. More importantly, it made the University community more aware of the violence in the Darfur region through a Rowan Radio WGLS radio panel, dirty water bottle campaign (highlighting the lack of sanitary water in Darfur), letters to world leaders urging them to take action, and other tactics aimed at raising awareness of the atrocities occurring in Darfur.

Aside from significant ignorance of the continent of Africa held by many Americans, partly shaped by years of disconnect from reports of widespread poverty and violence in some countries on the continent, the common belief about Darfur’s genocide is that certain people are simply targeted because they are of a different ethnicity; (even this assumption is controversial and is not widely agreed upon worldwide). Instead, Darfur’s violence of over five years is influenced by oil revenues, lack of resources, greed and countless other forces. Today’s event aims to change this misconception with games, materials, speakers, and other important tactics behind a simple message: Darfur has a better tomorrow but it must begin today.