Local teens move into action to help those suffering in Darfur

by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

Three New Jersey teenagers, horrified by what they learned of the genocide being inflicted on people in the Darfur region of Sudan, have launched an effort to help them. Arielle Wisotsky, 16, and the Messinger brothers, David, 17, and Eric, 15, have established Help Darfur Now, Inc., and they are appealing for funds to assist the victims.

With help from Arielle’s mother, Nina Schwartz, the teens have set up a web site at www.helpdarfurnow.org that offers photographs and information. So far they have raised a few hundred dollars, said Arielle, who lives in Basking Ridge, but they are hoping to bring in around $5,000.

“Those people need our help,” Arielle said in a recent phone interview. “We have to do whatever we can.”

David echoed her feelings: “People need help,” he said. “This area needs help, so I decided to do something. I feel I have something to offer.”

“Too often people ignore major problems,” added Eric. “When Arielle told me about Darfur, I thought it was an opportunity to help others.”

The teens have researched the subject thoroughly and are determined to make the facts known. In a press release issued last week, they described the systematic efforts of “the government-backed Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed,” to eliminate the population of African tribal farmers in the region.

“Through a system of torture, rape and murder, they have killed half a million people and the number continues to climb daily,” the teens wrote. “Additionally, 2.5 million people have been displaced, many to neighboring Chad, and 3.5 million are reported to be starving. Although the international community has taken notice, nothing substantial has been done to stop this genocide.”

The three young people said their organization is dedicated to “raising public awareness of the atrocities occurring in Darfur and providing much-needed financial aid for food, shelter, and medicine to the refugees.”

The determination to help others is a mindset that Arielle, for her part, attributes to her grandmother, Jeanine Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States from France and now lives in Florida. “She refused to talk about her experiences, but because of her, our family has always been aware of this kind of thing,” Arielle said.

Visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington last winter with a group from her school, Ridge High in Basking Ridge, Arielle came across material detailing other genocides and learned for the first time about the horror taking place in Darfur. The 11th-grader was stunned. “I thought: ‘How come I didn’t know about this?’ It’s really horrible. We have to do something about it.

“Some people,” she said, “will never care. Others really respond. They say, ‘Oh, my God!’ and they’re really helping out.” That has been true of her schoolmates, but it was particularly true of her longtime friends David and Eric, 11th- and 10th-graders, respectively, at Millburn High School. (The boys are not related to Ruth Messinger, the former Manhattan borough president who now heads the American Jewish World Service, which is playing a leading role in the Jewish community’s response to the Darfur crisis.)

The brothers, who live in Short Hills, where Arielle’s family used to live, felt just as she did. “We’ve known each other since preschool,” she said. When she discussed her idea with them, they immediately agreed to join forces.

The three teens researched the subject, and in the spring they set to work, aided by Arielle’s father, lawyer Bruce Wisotsky, completing all the paperwork involved in setting up a legal, tax-exempt charitable fund. Arielle explained that they wanted to make sure that all the money raised went to the cause.

They put their efforts on hold during the summer. Arielle was working on another cause, helping impoverished people in Peru. She went there with Visions, a group that takes young people to work on social service projects in various countries. She and her coworkers built a one-room preschool and an addition to a firehouse, and taught some English. “It was great,” she said.

Once the school year started, the trio got back into action.

They took part in the Nov. 7 shofar-blowing protest march for Darfur in Morristown, which was organized by a coalition of community groups, including United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ’s Community Relations Committee (see NJJN, Nov. 10, page 1). Some donations for their effort were collected there.

They also got to meet Abdelbagy Abushanab, a political refugee from Darfur whose relatives have been among the victims of Janjaweed attacks. Arielle described him as “really amazing.” She said he spoke about events occurring not in a distant decade, but right now, when something can be done.

For more information, go to www.helpdarfurnow.org. Tax-exempt contributions can be made to Help Darfur Now, Inc., PO Box 5062, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-5062.

Elaine Durbach can be reached at edurbach@njjewishnews.com.

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