The ongoing suffering of the people of Darfur, still displaced from their homes after several years, can too easily be forgotten. But a simple idea – pitching a tent in a community as a focal point for awareness and action – has caught people’s imagination in the US, and is now spreading across the world.
The first ‘Tent of Hope’ – simulating the kind of refugee camp tent in which millions of Darfurians now live – was erected last year by a group of neighbours, families, and local activists in the grounds of a San Francisco church. They began decorating it with their messages to the people of Darfur, which other members of the community began to add to. Others soon sprang up in the local area, and then in Texas. The idea spread from community to community, and there are now Tents of Hope in 310 cities in the US, covering all 50 states. Brightly decorated, they have become focal points for education and activism, for meetings between Darfurian refugees and elected representatives, and for widening the circle of people involved in campaigning to end the suffering in the war-ravaged western Sudanese region.
