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Activism Stops Genocide

By Victoria Morphy, Connecticut

Activism can begin at almost any age as 18 year old Ronan Farrow knows. Over the course of the past several years, Farrow has devoted time and travel to Africa where he has seen the affects of the world dropping the ball on very serious issues - specifically the AIDS epidemic and the desperate situation in Darfur.

It doesn't take more than awareness of these issues and a heart to care. But for Farrow, who has been to Nigeria, Angola and Sudan, it has been his experiences in meeting his peers whose lives have been unbelievably scarred in the most God-forsaken ways that has motivated him to honor their stories in a myriad of humanitarian efforts.

"I met a boy about my own age, 17," Farrow said. "The Janjaweed had swept through his village, raped the women, took the livestock, and killed the men. He survived by hiding amongst the bodies of his dead relatives. As he lay there, the bombs started falling. After it was all over, he staggered across the desert for hours and hours, alone." Farrow said it wasn't long before this young man encountered rebel fighters from the Sudanese Liberation Army who recruited him as a child soldier. "This has been a major problem in Darfur and Chad," Farrow said. "Children have been kidnapped from refugee camps and villages and put into fighting forces. The 17 year old I met was eager to take up arms. He said ‘who else is going to protect us, but these rebels?' So he is now both part of the problem and also a victim."

Farrow's passion to make a difference has been crystal clear in articles he has written for The Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, Newsday and the Boston Herald. Earlier this year he hosted a summit on AIDS at the United Nations. But he says his efforts to champion human rights violations are only made stronger by his peers who are also working to change the desperate fate of so many people around the world.

"I'm humbled by the response by young people," Farrow said. "It's mostly students who have taken action, who have alerted the world to the crisis [in Darfur], who have made it clear to our political leadership that people do care - that it's in their interest to take action."

Groups like The Genocide Intervention Network, Stand and Save Darfur are student-driven groups that have organized rallies across the United States, initiated letter writing campaigns to government officials to affect legislation and have pressured their universities to divest support of anything that impedes opportunities to provide aid. "Young people have not allowed themselves to be disenfranchised," Farrow said. "We are an incredibly powerful group."

Even so, change has been painfully slow. Leadership has failed to take comprehensive actions that would render such issues as AIDS obsolete and every day people are dying in Darfur.

At the end of the day, it's persistent efforts that will force leadership to take action. This fall when Farrow goes to law school, he will continue to pound home these humanitarian concerns. He hopes to combine a law degree with humanitarian work. "Nothing would make me more proud than to end up working in a conflict-affected region, trying to help in whatever small way I can."