“What will you tell your grandchildren you did during the genocide in Darfur?”
This jarring question on a billboard spurred Rev. Ken Vander Wall, Christian Reformed campus pastor for William Paterson University (WPU) in Paterson, N.J., to action.
With the help of the WPU Christian Fellowship, Vander Wall organized a teach-in on campus that included a fundraiser for solar cookers for Darfur. Solar cookers allow women to forgo leaving the refugee camp to look for firewood, since during such trips they are at great risk of being raped or killed. Students raised $350 to purchase 23 cookers.
Students also participated in a postcard campaign urging U.S. President Barack Obama to do all he can to end the genocide in Darfur, where 400,000 people have been killed and 4.7 million have been displaced.
Vander Wall also gave a presentation on Darfur at Unity CRC in Prospect Park, N.J. People there signed more postcards and designated an offering to buy more solar cookers.
Vander Wall and students from WPU personally delivered more than 1,600 postcards to Washington, D.C.
