Darfur news
After Darfur, Starting Anew in the Midwest
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Looking at old pictures taken in the desert sand in the Darfur region of Sudan, Fawzia Suliman pointed to one after the other: mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, cousin, and so on.
“Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead,” she said. “All dead.”
The last place that Ms. Suliman called home was a grass-topped hut that janjaweed militia members burned to the ground. She offers the scars on her feet as testament to how fast she ran to escape them in the summer of 2005, at the beginning of an unlikely journey that led to an apartment here.
“If I talk to people from Darfur, I say come here,” said Ms. Suliman, 24, who has taken a job making utensils and cups in a plastics factory. “It’s too nice. Everybody knows New York City. But my God, all this is America, too.”
As many as 300 people originally from Darfur are living in Fort Wayne, with others scattered across smaller Indiana cities like Elkhart, South Bend and Goshen. Together, they form one of the largest concentrations of Darfuri in the United States.
The Darfuri in the Midwest stand out because by their own choice - they are not part of a resettlement program - they have skipped the big-city, East Coast introduction to America in favor of settling in a slower-paced agricultural region. Their numbers have increased since the first arrivals in the late 1990s and as the crisis in Darfur has escalated in recent years, with many reaching back to rescue more of their family members and friends.
The pastoral similarities between Darfur and Indiana, however tenuous, bring some comfort to the immigrants who are haunted by what is still going on back home.
“When I want to relax, I drive myself to the farms,” said Suliman A. Giddo, co-founder of Darfur Peace and Development, a nonprofit relief organization here. “That reminds me a lot of my country. I like to see the sky with the moon and the stars. That is the thing many of us like about this place.”
Many more Darfur articles in the news today. Check them out and remember those who are suffering.
( other news )
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Looking at old pictures taken in the desert sand in the Darfur region of Sudan, Fawzia Suliman pointed to one after the other: mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, cousin, and so on.
“Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead,” she said. “All dead.”
The last place that Ms. Suliman called home was a grass-topped hut that janjaweed militia members burned to the ground. She offers the scars on her feet as testament to how fast she ran to escape them in the summer of 2005, at the beginning of an unlikely journey that led to an apartment here.
“If I talk to people from Darfur, I say come here,” said Ms. Suliman, 24, who has taken a job making utensils and cups in a plastics factory. “It’s too nice. Everybody knows New York City. But my God, all this is America, too.”
As many as 300 people originally from Darfur are living in Fort Wayne, with others scattered across smaller Indiana cities like Elkhart, South Bend and Goshen. Together, they form one of the largest concentrations of Darfuri in the United States.
The Darfuri in the Midwest stand out because by their own choice - they are not part of a resettlement program - they have skipped the big-city, East Coast introduction to America in favor of settling in a slower-paced agricultural region. Their numbers have increased since the first arrivals in the late 1990s and as the crisis in Darfur has escalated in recent years, with many reaching back to rescue more of their family members and friends.
The pastoral similarities between Darfur and Indiana, however tenuous, bring some comfort to the immigrants who are haunted by what is still going on back home.
“When I want to relax, I drive myself to the farms,” said Suliman A. Giddo, co-founder of Darfur Peace and Development, a nonprofit relief organization here. “That reminds me a lot of my country. I like to see the sky with the moon and the stars. That is the thing many of us like about this place.”
Many more Darfur articles in the news today. Check them out and remember those who are suffering.
( other news )