What is being done to help the people of Darfur who are victims of the Darfur conflict?

Title

What is being done to help the people of Darfur who are victims of the Darfur conflict?

Introduction

My research topic is what and who is helping the people in Darfur through aid and other resources and how are they helping the people of Darfur as the people of Darfur are forced to be in a war torn area where genocide is occurring as well as other horrific things on a daily basis. The time frame covered in my topic ranges from the early nineties to present day and gives us information about who initially and currently is helping the people of Darfur.

Topic Analysis

The academic disciplines of my topic are associated with it include history, anthropology, religion, political science and sociology.

A list of the Library of Congress Subject Headings and numbers that were most effective in identifying relevant materials are:
DT-History of Africa
DT 155-155.2 Sudan Ethnography
DT 155.3-147.67 History of Sudan
DT 159.6-159.9 Sudan Local History and Description
AE-General Works
AE-90 Encyclopedias
AN-Newspapers

Useful Keywords & Subject Headings:

Some useful keywords and subject headings that I used in certain indexes and databases are-aid in Darfur, NATO involvement in Sudan, Coalition for International Justice in Sudan, China in Darfur, Amnesty International and nonprofit aid in Sudan.

Databases & Indexes:

The most important databases that I encountered in my research for this project were ProQuest and Infomine.

My experience:

My experience in identifying keywords and subject headings has gotten better from using the tips we’ve learned in this class as before I would post simple keywords like Darfur Conflict and not be met with what I was actually looking for as pretty much any and all news the correlates with the words Darfur Conflict isn’t guaranteed to tell me who is aiding in ending the conflict or who might be helping to fund that conflict, even if it is inadvertent. I have also found that naming specific organizations that are helping Darfur seems to lead me to more information about what is being done to aid in ending the conflict.I also felt that it was helpful to write down things that I read about such as teens fundraising to help aid in ending genocide in Darfur and then searching the keywords “teen fundraising for aid in Darfur” and was met with information regarding their cause and help.

Best Reference Sources

Organizations:

Darfur Peace & Development Organization. 2008. Dpado.org. 18 Feb.2008 <http://www.dpado.org.>

Darfur Peace & Development Organization is a nonprofit and nonreligious organization that is attempting to promote peace through aid and services to the people involved in the Darfur conflict. The people that are in the organization and most notable for the organizations website and the organization as a whole are Dr. Abdelrahman Bushara Dosa who is the Deputy President of the Board of Directors for the Sudanese Popular Development Organization as well as previously spending time as the Minister of Agriculture as Cindy Castano who is the president of an organization that predominately focuses on business development along with many other notable people of all different backgrounds-who are all working towards a humanitarian ideal of helping the people of Darfur. Darfur Peace & Development is an international organization that is attempting to eradicate hunger and poverty in Darfur though offering classes and other developmental opportunities for the people of Darfur as well as being active in helping to promote resolving the conflicts in Darfur. The aid provided by this organization includes offering transportation to people as well as disaster relief supplies and medical assistance to people who would otherwise be unable to obtain medical care. This site was informative and provided me with information on a nonprofit organization that is helping the people of Darfur.
Contact Info:
Darfur Peace & Development Organization
Headquarters Washington DC, USA
Email:giddo@dpado.org
Phone: (260)580-6966
Branches:
Fort Wayne, IN
Greensboro,NC
Philadelphia, PA
New York, NY
Alexandria,VA

Help Darfur Now. Helpdarfurnow.org. 18 Feb. 2008. www.helpdarfurnow.org.

Help Darfur Now is a nonprofit organization started by high school students who came up with the idea that fundraising for the people of Darfur would be a good idea, this site was relevant to my topic and shows just how people of all different backgrounds and ages are coming together to try and help the people of Darfur. Unlike some organizations which directly help the people of Darfur this organization helps by helping other organizations like Doctors Without Borders who in turn help the people of Darfur. This website provides information as to what exactly is being done to help the people of Darfur by this organization as well as some other organizations to research. This site has up to date information and is easy to navigate through while also providing interesting information on the Darfur conflict.
Contact Info:
Help Darfur Now
PO Box 4062
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-5062
Phone:
(908)647-4198
Email: Arielle@helpdarfurnow.org
david@helpdarfurnow.org
eric@helpdafurnow.org

Statistical Source:

Alert Net. Alertnet.org. 18 Feb. 2008. <http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/SD_DAR.htm?v=at_a_glance>.

This site provided many valuable statistics on the people of Darfur as well as the majority of people who are affected by the conflict as well as how many NGO and U.N. organizations are helping to support the Darfur population. A statistic from this site is that as of July 2007 there were 4.1 million people who had been affected by the Darfur conflict as well as that at that same point in time 240,000 refugees from Darfur had fled to Chad (i.e.-been displaced) and that there was a 13.1% chance of acute malnutrition in the general population of Darfur’s western region.

Subject Encyclopedia:

Charny, Israel W. “Darfur Genocide.” Stevenson Encyclopedia of Genocide. New York: Stevenson Publications, 2006.

This encyclopedia is part of a two volume set and pertained to my topic as it cited organizations and countries that were helping the people of Darfur as well as providing information such as statistics (that are a couple of years old) of things that are occurring the people directly involved in the conflict. The encyclopedia was written by a history professor who happens to take particular interest in the history of genocides. This encyclopedia was both informative and scholarly and pertained to my subject.
Encyclopedia :

Eitelburg, Vance. “Social Protection.” Encyclopedia Britannia.2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Seattle Central Community College Library 5 Feb 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-250231>.

The author of “Social Protection” is a Britannica writer and as Britannica is a scholarly encyclopedia series I must conclude that the information provided is scholarly and accurate. This article in the online encyclopedia provides information about the conflict in Darfur and gives information such as that genocide is occurring in Sudan and that the U.S. and other organizations internationally are attempting to help as well as providing some aid. The article also offers information as to how many people have become refugees due to the conflict and estimates of how many people have died because of genocide in Sudan. The article also provides information as to peace agreements that haven’t been kept (not all of them but some of them) and gives examples of things such as people being held hostage in lieu of these peace agreements. The article also provides information in regard to things such as the horrible circumstances that often times happen to people caught in the middle of these acts of genocide such as women being raped instead of killed or both as a way ethnic cleansing. This article is useful to my topic but it is a very broad article that gives me more ideas for things to research and is not the best for providing me with lots of information that is actually narrowing in on key things that become of interest after reading the article.

Best Books

Cheadle, Don. Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. New York: Little Books for Big Hearts Publishers, 2006

This book was written by a man who had been in the Peace Core and found the time to be motivated by his humanitarian efforts to place his attention on the people of Darfur and what is going on for them. The book is roughly three hundred and fifty pages and provides information about the conflict in Darfur and who and what countries and organizations are working to help the people and Darfur and what countries are inadvertently affecting the conflict. As well as informing us on the differing forms of media coverage throughout the world on the Darfur conflict. This book has an excellent bibliography that provides bountiful information on who is helping the people and Darfur as well governmental, religious and NGO groups to research for more information is completely relevant to my topic. This book was simply the most beneficial find in my research as it answers virtually any question in regard to who is helping the people of Darfur.

Totten, Samuel & Markusen, Eric. Genocide in Darfur: Investigating the Atrocities in Sudan. New York. Taylor and Francis Group, 2006.

The book Genocide in Darfur: Investigating the Atrocities in Sudan was written by two men who have devoted their lives to studying historical genocide and writing numerous books on subjects such as the holocaust and finally this book together on the more recent subject of genocide in Darfur. This book is divided into five parts with many sub chapters in each part as well as citing numerous other works and providing an index and appendix. The five parts in the book cover the background on Darfur, the investigation on what has been going on in Sudan, the genocide determination, the significance of atrocities documentation project as well as the final part being on the analysis of the rational of the determination of genocide in Sudan. This book is very relevant to my topic as it provides a background and the reason behind what I am researching as well as providing current things that have occurred, the only unfortunate thing about this book is that it is two years old so it does not have every single thing that’s gone on in the past two years available to me.

Description of search strategy:
I found one of these books in the sociology section of the library and under the Sudan sub-category and I chose them because they were less broad then the other books I was able to find and more honed in on what my topic is about.

Best Periodical Articles

For virtual libraries, I used a library gateway known as Infomine and I searched “genocide Darfur” and was met with fabulous results, I am unsure whether to call this site a vortal or a gateway site because the site that it led me to amongst the results was URL link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/sudan/default.stm, which is BBC news information on Darfur and the conflict as well as other information pertaining to Sudan. This site had information on the Janjaweed, the conflict, genocide and even the economy of Sudan. It was an excellent resource and the Virtual library was great because it gave me many sites to choose from. The link for the virtual library Infomine is http://infomine.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/canned_search.

Description of my search strategy:
I found that when searching periodical databases that it is best to narrow the topic down by selecting full documents, selective keywords and selecting either scholarly or academic journals.
Best Internet Sources

Darfur: Genocide We Can Stop. 2008. Darfurgenocide.org. 12 Feb. 2006 <

This website is an informative site that has information on the past and present occurrence in Darfur as well as offering information on how to help and what you can do to participate in ending the conflict as well as offering information scholarly information in regard to statistics as well as other resources. It’s a compilation of different people’s writings as well as offering things like forums and blogs about people discussing the topic of Darfur and thanking certain organizations that are helping the people of Darfur. This site was relevant to my topic and an excellent choice as it gave me even more information that I was interested and virtually all of it was relevant.

“Sudan the Executive Legacy.” Genocide Intervention Network. 22 Jan. 2008 >.

This site was created by an NGO that focuses on ending genocide throughout the world and offers a campaign which anyone can sign up to get up to date information on the conflict in Darfur as well as getting information on different ways that people can deal with local politics and international politics to help the people of Darfur as well as listing some ways and organizations that are helping the people of Darfur. It is informative and relevant to my topic as it pertains to aid in Darfur.

Best Non-print Source

“Darfur Front and Center, in the ‘New Republic.’” Narr. Michele Norris. All Things Considered. NPR. NPR, Seattle. 12 May. 2006. 9 Feb. 2008 < storyid="5401453&ft="1&f="1001">.

This non print source is an audio recording of an interview that is occurring with Michael Norris who is responsible for the decision for his magazine to focus all of its articles on the topic of Darfur and what is being done there in order to get out more information about the Darfur conflict in order to help the people of Darfur. This non print source was excellent as it provided me the opportunity to hear a radio interview that I otherwise would have been unable to hear had it not been archived as it was in this situation. The interview is easy to listen to and all in laymen’s terms so even someone who doesn’t understand or know what is going on in Darfur is able to understand it.

Review of My Research Process

When I searched things in particular on databases and the web, in order to facilitate narrowing my results and finding information that was appropriately for my topic I used selective keywords as well as narrowing down what I was searching from determining whether I wanted a news article, an article from a scholarly journal or even narrowing down on certain databases whether I wanted complete articles or information on where to find certain articles and in what periodical I would locate them.

The nature of my topic is determining who if anyone is giving aid to stopping the Darfur conflict and whether these are entire countries or organizations or even just a group of people or single person that is working towards helping the people of Darfur as well as what countries and places are actually helping with all of their resources or just certain resources. And what countries are potentially helping the Sudanese economy to stay afloat and in essence continue in their war (i.e.-China).

I’ve found the kind of information that has been most informative of my topic has been news websites and information pamphlets that allot me information from nonprofit organizations or people who are helping to end genocide in Darfur. I have also found in finding information about how China is helping to inadvertently fuel this war that news and other periodical resources seem to be the best venue for acquiring information especially news for up to date information.
I expected to find that reference books would be most relevant to my topic and though they provide good history of what has occurred in Darfur and the varying reasons for its initial conflict I have found that they offer little in the way of up to date information on aid in Darfur or for Darfur.

The internet as an information resource has been very helpful, although it was unable to give me print out pamphlets from organizations trying to help Darfur it has also been very helpful in finding the agencies, organizations and government information that tells me how and who to get a hold of in order to get the information that I need such as information pamphlets. It’s also been an excellent aid in the fact that there are periodical databases which offer me more options and areas to locate the news on my topic from more sources then what is available at an actual library (even academic libraries).