A Weekend of Hope

This past weekend marked the culmination of the Tents of Hope project, with the gathering on the Mall of over 300 tents from around the country. After the weekend festivities, the tents will be sent to Africa where they will be used as classrooms from refugee children from Darfur.


Sunday morning as we attended an interfaith service at the 6th & I Street Synagogue, I was taken by the following poem from Emithal Mahmoud, a 14-year-old girl, a refugee from Darfur now living in Philadelphia:

War in Darfur

The merciless soldier,
With a heart that’s a boulder,
Driven by money, blinded by fear,
Desperate cries for help, he’ll never hear.
Roaming the streets with a charred black soul,
No one is safe, not woman, not man, not young, and not old.
Knowledge is forcibly pushed aside,
Because power has now taken the stride.
What was once a sanctuary, a haven for all,
Is now no haven, but a place where innocent lives did fall.
What’s going on is a senseless, cold hearted war;
Bad against good, strong against weak, all in Darfur.
Possessions are gone, everything is wrong.
People aren’t happy, they’re homeless and hungry,
Worst of all is that no one is free.
Families are shattered in this big bloody battle.
Good people lose jobs
And are replaced by slobs.
No female is safe,
Because she is a subject to rape.
People are murdered throughout the nation,
Because of this mostly orphans make up the population.
There is no respect and there is no pride,
The only thing there is, is GENOCIDE.
I believe it’s time to put this to an end,
For there are lives to defend.
Take action, or sit in grief?
If you still don’t know which side to choose,
Ask yourself one question, “What did the children do?”