In February 2003 the Sudanese Liberation Army in Darfur (the western region of Sudan) responded to decades of oppression by taking up arms against the Sudanese government. The government and allied militias, known as Janjaweed, answered the rebellion with the large-scale murder of civilians, mass-rapes of women and girls, and destruction of villages, resulting in one of the world's largest current political and humanitarian crises. Up to 400,000 civilians have died since the beginning of the conflict and over 2 million people have been displaced.

The US government acknowledged in September 2004 that what is going on in the Sudan constitutes genocide. In July of 2005, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited the refugee camps in Chad. Yet despite United Nations resolutions and peacekeeping missions, the crisis is ongoing and the United States continues to pursue relations with the genocidal regime.

The Documentary

In October and November 2004, after watching woefully inadequate media coverage on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, a team of three independent filmmakers trekked to Darfurian refugee camps in eastern Chad and, with the help of the rebel movement, snuck across the border into Darfur. Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe, and Adam Shapiro met hundreds of Darfurians. They interviewed refugees and displaced people, civilians and fighters resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children and community leaders. The documentary Darfur Diaries: Message from Home chronicles the history, hopes, and fears of the people of Darfur and the tragedy they are living. A book is under development.

The Speakers

The filmmakers are now speaking out to bring the ongoing crisis to the attention of the American public: sharing their experience, providing the basic facts about the history of the region, and showing footage of crowded refugee camps, burned-out villages, and eyewitness accounts of the slaughter and oppression.

Aisha Bain is the Asia Program Associate at the international human rights organization Global Rights. She served as Deputy Director at the Center for the Prevention of Genocide where she worked extensively investigating and reporting the massacres in Darfur and Northern Uganda, and lobbying for international action. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar and traveled throughout much of the Horn of Africa. She has also conducted extensive field research in human trafficking in South East Asia.

Jen Marlowe spent four years coordinating and directing the program at the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, creating and implementing co-existence programs for hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli youth. In addition, she was the program director for Seeds of Peace in Afghanistan, and facilitated conflict groups of youth from India and Pakistan, the Balkans, and Turkish and Greek Cypriot youth.

Adam Shapiro is currently serving as Country Director in Afghanistan for the international human rights organization Global Rights.  Adam is a founding member of InCounter Productions which produced the documentary film, About Baghdad (Spring 2004), based on filming in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003.  He is a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine and lived and worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for three years.  Adam is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at American University. He serves on the Board of Directors of Partners for Peace and in 2002 was named an honorary Veteran for Peace.