CHESHIRE - El-Fadel Arbab described his life growing up in Sudan to Dodd Middle School students Friday. He spoke of helping with the family farm, raising goats and chickens and playing soccer with friends with a ball made from socks and plastic bags.

That simple existence was lost when Arbab's village in Darfur was attacked by the Sudanese army and northern Sudanese militias when Arbab was 12.

"Suddenly, we found ourselves in a war," he said.

Arbab, who is living in Maine, has been traveling around the New Haven area telling his story of the Darfur conflict. His talk at Dodd was part of the school's tolerance and diversity program, coordinated by eighth-grade language arts teacher Sherry Stekloff.

"It's just what happens when intolerance runs rampant," Stekloff said.

The conflict in Sudan pits northern Sudanese, who are Arab-Africans and primarily raise livestock, against black African tribes of southern Sudan, who are primarily farmers. Drought and the growth of the Sahara desert have made water and other resources scarce, causing tension between farmers and herders.

According to Arbab, the janjaweed - militiamen recruited from nomadic tribes - and the Sudanese army attacked his village in Darfur at night.

Soldiers and militiamen set houses on fire, and anyone who tried to flee the burning buildings would be killed with machetes, Arbab said.

Arbab and his family fled from their house after it was set on fire, but Arbab was caught while running.

"They took me and threw me into a house on fire," he said. Arbab escaped, but suffered burns to his head and face. He continued to flee alone for the next week, traveling by night and hiding in trees by day lest he be caught by militia and killed.

Arbab eventually fled to Egypt and got a visa to come to the United States.

A group of more than 80 students has been working on posters and researching the conflict in Darfur, Stekloff said.

While last year's eighth-graders raised money to buy solar cookers for families in Darfur, aid workers are no longer allowed in the country. This year, eighth-graders have been making posters, videos and poetry about the violence in Darfur.

"Our purpose is to develop community awareness," Stekloff said.

Eighth-graders who have been studying the Darfur situation said Arbab's talk made the suffering much more real to them.

"You'd like to say you can feel his pain, but you really can't," said Jenna Bogozelski.

"It was really inspiring and makes you really want to help," said Jess Wallinger.

Lauren Kempton, director of the Holocaust Education Prejudice Reduction Program, is a friend of Stekloff and last year spoke at Dodd about the Holocaust. Kempton is also a friend of Arbab and helped coordinate his visit to Dodd.

She said there are many connections between the Holocaust and what she calls genocide in Sudan. The Dodd students are familiar with the Holocaust, she said, but it was difficult for them to imagine how the wholesale killing of civilians could happen today.

"The kids learned about the Holocaust (and the response) 'never again,' but when they hear about Darfur, the 'never again' became 'again,'" Kempton said.

Kempton and Arbab were presented amulets, charms worn by children in Darfur, and poetry by Dodd students after the talk.

"It was amazing," Arbab said. "It's very powerful for me."

Arbab said he was encouraged by posters and awareness efforts being done at Dodd.

"They are really working hard," he said. "The community here is working very hard to put these words out."

Arbab has organized a group focused on raising awareness of the situation in Darfur. Information is available at the Web site www.furculturalrevival.org.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com
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