YSU student working to end Darfur killings

By Harold Gwin

A quest for lemonade led her to form a group seeking an end to genocide in Darfur.

YOUNGSTOWN — Lindsey Cerutti was sitting under a tree at Youngstown State University sipping some lemonade at the annual art festival when she noticed a nearby booth with a sign that said, “Save Darfur.”

Getting some fresh lemonade was the only reason she and a friend came to the festival, but she said she left with an entirely different focus.

She decided to check out the Darfur booth, and what she found had a profound impact on her, so much so that it prompted her to form a YSU chapter of Students Take Action Now: Darfur, or STAND.

Cerutti, 25, now a sophomore social work major from Cleveland, said she bought a wristband at the booth and picked up some information sheets but didn’t read them until she got back to her apartment.

She had heard about the genocide going on in the Darfur region of Sudan in Africa but didn’t realize the extent of the killing until she began reading the information.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, including children who were raped and thrown into fires, she said.

It’s been going on for four years, she said, adding, “That’s the part that angers and frustrates me the most.”

“These people have no kind of voice,” Cerutti said, adding that their own government hasn’t helped them.

The situation prompted her to apply to STAND for permission to open a university chapter. With that in hand, she approached the university and found acceptance as a student organization which allows her to have meetings and set up tables to dispense information on YSU property.

She said some people are surprised to learn that a white, Italian girl from Cleveland is so concerned about helping black people in Africa she has never met.

“I have a strong passion for helping people in need,” she said, explaining why, as a new freshman at YSU, she chose to start a student activist group.

“I’ve been so gung-ho about it,” she said, adding that she speaks about Darfur with everyone she meets.

She’s been able to attract a strong core of between six and 12 people, some of them YSU students who live in her apartment complex, to participate in the STAND chapter, and the group has been active.

But attracting wider student participation has been difficult, Cerutti said, pointing out that YSU is basically a commuter school, and many students don’t have the time or interest in getting involved in campus activities beyond attending classes.

If she gets discouraged, she needs only to realize that, if she quits, there won’t be anyone here to fight for Darfur, she said.

She’s written about her involvement and submitted the text to STAND in a competition for entries in a book the organization will publish later this year.

There are some well-known celebrities who have taken up the Darfur cause, and Cerutti said she frequently mentions them in talking to people.

Actor Don Cheadle has co-written a book about it, “Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond,” and he and actor Brad Pitt have poker tournaments to raise money for the cause.

Actors George Clooney and Matt Damon also have been outspoken advocates for help in Darfur, and the four actors helped create Not On Our Watch, a charitable organization seeking to focus world attention and resources on ending the violence.

Cerutti has launched a local petition drive as part of a larger STAND effort to ask President George Bush to take some action to end the genocide.

Many people feel that there is nothing they can do, but if everyone comes together, “We can make a difference,” she added.

gwin@vindy.com