Kids learn about Darfur Doctor who spent time in region tells students of genocide horrors. Thursday, February 08, 2007 • By TOM QUIGLEY • The Express-Times INDEPENDENCE TWP. | Fourteen-year-old Allamuchy Township Elementary School eighth-grader Morgan Gardiner got the message. "I found that it was very powerful," he said. "It makes you want to contribute to the effort." The "effort" Gardiner mentions is finding a way to stop the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, Africa. The messenger who came Wednesday to the Great Meadows Regional Middle School is a New Jersey pediatrician who spent two months in the war-torn region. Dr. Jerry Ehrlich, 71, in 2004 volunteered in Dafur with the Doctors Without Borders program. Ehrlich -- who said later his wife lost her family members during the Holocaust -- has brought his message to schools and other organizations since his return. Pictures of horror The most poignant part of that message is the drawings created by the children of Darfur. Ehrlich took a few chances on his trip by smuggling in some crayons and coloring paper, and a camera, too. The drawings differ greatly from those of an American child, for they depict the horror of a backlash by the military regime in Sudan and associated Arab militia groups. They depict executions, bombings, loss of loved ones and other atrocities endured by the civilians of Darfur. All this while the world once again stands by during genocide, Ehrlich told the students. He showed the students photographs smuggled out of the country showing children so weakened by malnutrition they suffered immune-system deficiencies comparable to someone with AIDS. There were photographs of women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, some having lost their entire families. One woman is holding her sole surviving child and her face bears the look of PTSD: vacuous and lost. 'Never again,' again "Never again," Ehrlich said, quoting the statements of world leaders after the German Holocaust and the slaughter of 6 million Jews. But then the world did nothing during the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s and now it's more of the same, he said. "This is the first genocide of the 21st century," he said. "I hope you will make a difference. How many survivors would there be if the Holocaust ended six months earlier?" Students can organize campaigns targeting local government representatives and other youth groups have organized charities to help the children of Darfur. Gardiner said he thinks the United States could do more to help and so can ordinary people. "You don't have to be a celebrity to help," he said. "It's like when somebody gets picked on at school and nobody does anything." Students from Great Meadows, the Allamuchy Township school and the Hackettstown Middle School joined in the district's program about tolerance Wednesday. The program included talks about gangs and other topics. Called to action Other students said Ehrlich's talk made them feel as though they can actually do something to help those in Darfur. "It really touched my heart how much of our government can sit back and watch those people die and not do anything about it," eighth-grader Hayley Virgil, 13, said. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when local rebels took up arms against the government. The government responded by backing Arab militias in what has been described in news accounts as a scorched-earth campaign. The war has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people and the displacement of at least 2 million others, news accounts show. Efforts are under way to put a larger peacekeeping force in the region and impose economic sanctions against the Sudanese government. Reporter Tom Quigley can be reached at 908-475-8184 or by e-mail at tquigley@express-times.com. © 2006 The Express-Times. Used by NJ.com with permission.