July’s Darfur Heroes

I'll never forget running down Highway 40 in the heart of Ohio. I think that's the moment when the magnitude of my idea finally sunk in. Michael Gurley, my friend and co-runner, said to me between the typical ragged breath of a runner, "This is crazy. We're on a highway…in the middle of nowhere…running."

The chances of that being a verbatim quotation are extremely low. There's something about running over 100 miles in a week that knocks the body's chemistry off a bit and leaves the memory functions a bit lacking, but the true beginnings of my loss of sanity have roots in earlier times.

Sometime around Thanksgiving break of 2007, a few of my cross country friends and I were talking about the possibility of running across the country. I took the idea and, excuse the pun, ran with it. For seven months, I calculated distances, begged for support, sent out mass mailings, made hundreds of calls, and sent out e-mails to all of my friends, and then some. Slowly, but not so surely, the "Never Ignore, Never Forget" relay came to life.

The purpose of the relay was to raise awareness of genocide and raise money for anti-genocide programs. We ran in a relay format, one after the other, for a cumulative total of roughly 110 miles per day. The ten of us consistently ran between 10 and 13 miles each day. By the end of the relay, we raised approximately $25,000 for the Genocide Intervention Network's civilian protection program and still receive more donations every day.

After thirteen days on the road, we arrived in D.C. to a warm welcome from the Genocide Intervention Network, Refugees International, and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. Despite the incredible feeling of accomplishment inherent with running across half the country, the most amazing part of the relay for all of us was a meeting we participated in Columbus, Ohio.

We were invited to attend the fortnight meeting of the Central Ohio Darfur Solidarity Network during our brief, overnight stay. Although the group was fairly new, they had already played an integral role in helping Darfuri refugees assimilate into their new lives in America by offering them support and the comforting welcome of open arms. Roughly one-fourth of their membership consisted of Darfuris. We had the honor and privilege to hear the three refugees recount their stories personally.

Two, Khamese and Halima, were husband and wife. They recounted the story of their escape from Sudan to the country of Ghana after the janjaweed militia slaughtered eight people in their village. Both were holding back tears as they revealed that they still have four children stuck in refugee camps.

The third refugee, Salah, had only arrived in America within the past two weeks. He fled to Egypt after the killing started and co-founded a group there to lobby the Egyptian government and the United Nations to send the Darfuri refugees to safety.

Salah told of how he organized a peaceful sit-in outside of the Egyptian government building after it denied all Darfuri refugees any means out of the region. He and thousands of others waited for more than 100 days until the government brought in attack dogs, high-pressured water hoses and armed soldiers to beat back the protesters. Salah was captured and tortured; he was blindfolded for days, starved, deprived of sleep and even shocked.

Even in retrospect, I can hardly describe how I felt while I heard their stories: pity, sadness, disbelief. The blatant slaughter and disrespect for human life seems absolutely foreign to me. However, what is even more disheartening is the realization that America, the great country founded on the principles of equality for all regardless of race, religion or ethnicity, can turn a blind eye to a dispute fueled by prejudice.

We received ridicule from people during every aspect of our journey. "Why bother," they would ask, "running across the country will solve nothing." They may be right. The result of our run, the money raised, and the people informed may have an infinitesimal effect on the actual situation in Darfur, but at least I know we had some effect.

Now, on behalf of Khamese, Halima, Salah, the Never Ignore relay team, and the millions of faceless victims of genocide, I ask you to do something: write your congressman, divest your funds, organize events in your community, and take a stand against the slaughter. You have the chance to change the world, don't waste it.

Matthew Heck is a senior at Wichita High School East in Wichita, KS and the primary organizer of the Never Ignore, Never Forget relay. The relay raised $25,000 and received attention from multiple media sources including a featured spot on MTV.com's World News front page. To learn more about the relay, please visit NeverIgnore.org.