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CWS Chief Joins Fast for Darfur Victims

October 4, 2005

New York--On Oct. 6 the Rev. John McCullough, chief executive of Church World Service, will join thousands of people expected to participate in a day-long "fast" to call attention to the atrocities taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The event is being organized by Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, on campuses across the nation. Participants are asked to give up one item--like food, caffeine, chocolate, a manicure—and send the money they save to an organization involved in relief efforts for victims of the violence.

The United Nations has described the two-year conflict as the world's worst humanitarian crisis and says that war crimes have been committed. The United States has called it as genocide.

Patrick Schmitt, a STAND organizer at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., is urging people not to forget about the crisis. "It's crucial, especially when there are other disasters going on, to demonstrate our continued concern to the people of Sudan, the government of Sudan and our own government."

McCullough says a day of fasting is a small sacrifice "if it helps to shine a light on the atrocities being committed in Sudan. Fasting means that I will miss a few meals and then go have something to eat. The suffering people in Darfur may die before they eat another meal."

The conflict in Darfur, located in western Sudan, dates back to 2003 when armed rebel groups began protesting what they view as oppression of the region's black African people by Sudan's Arab-dominated government. The government responded by unleashing Arab militias, known as janjaweed, on a campaign of murder, rape, and arson against the black Africans in the region.

As many as 400,000 people have died as a result of the violence and disease. More than 2 million people have fled their burned villages and settled in makeshift camps in west, north, and south Darfur. Another 200,000 have fled across the border into Chad.

Violence has increased in the Darfur region over the past two weeks. Just last week, at least 32 were people killed in a janjaweed attack on a camp for internally displaced people. Following the attack, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said that the deteriorating security situation is making it impossible for humanitarian agencies to deliver food, water and medicine to victims of the violence.

Church World Service, in alliance with non-governmental organizations from the U.S. Europe, and Sudan, is providing food, medicine, water, and supplies for people in the camps and is assisting people returning home after being uprooted by a 21-year long conflict between north and south Sudan. (Read more on CWS's response to the Sudan crisis.)

CWS continues its advocacy around this issue, asking people to pressure the Bush administration to work more forcefully within the UN Security Council for increased security for Sudanese civilians and humanitarian workers; for Sudanese government adherence to the January 2005 peace agreement that ended the north-south conflict; and for increased efforts to end the Darfur violence.

Church World Service, the relief, development, and refugee assistance ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States, also is chief sponsor of a growing grassroots awareness and fundraising campaign called "Dear Sudan." The campaign is a nationwide interfaith effort to end the genocide.

Denominations specifically supporting the "Dear Sudan" campaign include United Church of Christ -- One Great Hour of Sharing; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - Week of Compassion; The United Methodist Church; American Baptists Churches USA; and Reformed Church in America.

Urging people to demonstrate their support for stronger efforts to end the crisis to by joining the Oct. 6 fast, McCullough says, "We cannot afford to turn our eyes away from the suffering of the people caught up in the murderous violence in Sudan."

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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