12 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday December 22, 2006 www.oakvillebeaver.com Images of Darfur behind school's campaign St. Thomas Aquinas community creates awareness, raise funds for ongoing crisis in Sudan By Sabrina Byrnes OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF STA 4 SUDAN is what students at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School dubbed their fundraising campaign to raise money for and create awareness of the ongoing crisis in Sudan. The campaign originated in Colleen McConnell's Grade 10 Religion class when the students started researching the issue in the social justice component of the program. "First of all my goal is to get awareness," said McConnell regarding her hopes for the outcome of the campaign. The fundraising efforts began when the students learned of the desperate situation in Sudan and decided they wanted to do something about it. STA 4 SUDAN is a fundraising campaign with many components. It began near the end of November during the school's parentteacher night. Parents were encouraged to donate money and sign a petition that will later be sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the hope Ottawa will send peacekeepers to Sudan. A group called the Jangaweed has gone into Darfur and has burned the villages killing thousands of innocent people, explained McConnell. "Two hundred to 400,000 people have been killed, two million have been displaced from their homes and are living in refugee camps," said McConnell. "We just don't want a genocide, and it is a genocide that is going on there," she said. "It's an atrocity, it's absolutely unbelievable that in this day and age that there are people there that are being killed," McConnell said. She added that her students have also sent letters to the Prime Minister in hopes that peacekeepers will be sent. "There is no UN peacekeeping force in the country. It has only been the African Union and they really don't have enough soldiers to stop the atrocities from going on." As part of the school's fundraising cam- SABRINA BYRNES / OAKVILLE BEAVER IMAGES OF SUDAN: From left, Phyllis Fergusson, manager of fund development and plan giving, Oakville branch of the Canadian Red Cross, watches a slide presentation with Svetlana Ageeva, who is with International Services, Region of Peel Branch of the Canadian Red Cross. The slide show was put together by St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School students who are raising money and awareness about the stricken people of Darfur. paign an iPod Nano, a beauty package, a gift basket filled with chocolate and a Bluenotes gift card were raffled off. Buy Out tickets began selling at the beginning of last week, where students would purchase a ticket for $2 that would enable them to get out of their fifth period class on Dec. 15 to watch a presentation on the ongoing crisis in Sudan. The first part of the presentation was a slideshow put together by the students. It incorporated images that the students had come across during their research. The presentation also included guest speaker Svetlana Ageeva with the International Services from the Region of Peel Branch of The Canadian Red Cross who spoke about that organization's involvement in Sudan. A bake sale was held on the day of the presentation to raise even more money. The students collected $1,200 which will be given to The Canadian Red Cross for their work in Sudan. "This school is really great, it really responds," said McConnell. "The school is known as `The Little School With a Big Heart', and they come through, and I'm really proud of them," she said. Stephen Franchetto, a 15-year-old student in McConnell's Religion class, was one of the main organizers of the campaign. He he felt that something needed to be done to heighten awareness about the plight of the people of Sudan. "We felt what was happening there was inhumane, and we thought that we could help people living in refugee camps because the government in Sudan is killing people. So we wanted to help people," said the Grade 10 student. Franchetto says if more people are aware then something can be done. "We hope that, it's not so much the money for us, it's that people know about it, and we're hoping ... that we get people talking about it and they go to our site and they sign the petition. Because, if people talk about it, they know stuff and they can do more then we can," he said. The school has set up an online petition at www.sta4sudan.piczo.com. The website also offers additional information regarding Sudan and the school's fundraising efforts. It is the Red Cross's mission as well to raise awareness and to help those in need, no matter what the circumstances. Ageeva says that the Canadian Red Cross is unbiased and does not take sides. "The Red Cross or the International Committee of the Red Cross is an organization that does not take sides," said Ageeva. "What we do is we step in and help the most vulnerable," she said. "We provide them with awareness on international humanitarian law," Ageeva continued. " We go out there and educate the armed forces ... the Canadian Armed Forces on the basics of IHL, International Humanitarian Law, in other words, what's allowed and what's not allowed. What can they do and what can not they do in a situation of an armed conflict." Ageeva said that the security situation in Sudan is deteriorating and many agencies are pulling out of the area because it is far too dangerous. "It's not safe for their workers to be operational in that area and it's getting worse and worse and worse. ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross is the organization that still stays in that area," Ageeva noted. "People are in a great need, and they depend upon the humanitarian assistance. Food, shelter, water sanitation, that the international community was providing them with. Now those agencies are pulling out because of the security situation. "We care for the wounded and sick, for the civilians in that area, for the women and children, as well other members of the armed forces regardless of their back round. That's who we care for. The mandate of our organization is to provide them with protection necessary abided by the International Humanitarian Law," Ageeva explained. In a report issued earlier this year, it was noted the ICRC ran a field surgical team in Darfur that operated on 245 war-wounded, supported five primary-healthcare centres that gave 76,000 outpatient consultations, See Students page 13