To feed her family,
a mother gathers fuel,
and prays she won't be raped --
life can be so cruel.
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Contest Winner
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Author Notes
Over 2.5 million people have been displaced to refugee camps in the ongoing war in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Estimates ranging up to 500,000 deaths have occurred. In July of 2008, the International Criminal Court filed ten charges of war crimes against the President of Sudan, including the sanctioning of mass rape against refugee women and girls as young as four. Most of the rapes occur when women leave the camps to gather scarce firewood, which can require hikes of several hours to find.
Why don't the men gather the wood? Because they will be killed. Darfurstoves.org is a non-profit organization that provides refugee families with a stove that vastly increases fuel efficiency and decreases the need for wood gathering.
A naani is a poem in four lines with 20-25 syllables. This one is 25. They usually "depend upon human conditions and current statements."
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