Newsletter

My name is Freya and I am 8 ¾ years old. I am Catholic, and I like swimming and playing with my dolls and friends. This is my Darfur story.

One night last May I was at Mass and a young man named Luke Wilson from the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies talked about the genocide happening in Darfur. His talk was so good and it made me think. Genocide is horrible. I turned to my mom about halfway through his talk and said “Mom, this isn’t right. We have to do something.” My first idea was to do a big dance fundraiser, but my mom said that would be too much work, and she wasn’t sure how to do it. Also, my baby brother was only two months old then, and my mom couldn’t put together a big dance. So, my next idea was to sell Sacrifice Beads. I discussed that idea with my mom and she said that would work.

Sacrifice Beads are a strand of 10 beads with a crucifix at one end and a medal of St. Therese on the other end. The beads are on the string so you can move them and they will stay where they are moved to. You start out every day with the beads at the end where the medal is. Every time you do a good deed or make a sacrifice out of love, you pull a bead toward the crucifix. Hopefully, we do 10 good things each day. You could skip a meal or snack, do someone else’s chore, or let a sibling or friend have their way even though you want something else. These are all sacrifices.

We make the Sacrifice Beads and sell them for five dollars per set. Four dollars from each sale gets donated directly to the Genocide Intervention Network of Minnesota to help girls in Darfur. So far I have sold the beads at a holiday boutique at a local Catholic school and twice at the church where I heard Luke speak. I have e-mailed my family and friends about what I am doing and started a blog. So far, I have raised over 700 dollars. I have had my efforts mentioned in three local papers. It is neat to be in the papers, but even better to have the mention of what is going on in Darfur in the papers. I hope that the more people find out about Darfur, the more people will get involved to make it stop. No child my age should fear death or worse just because their skin is “too dark.”