Guran Avium. It is a name I can’t forget. It is the name of a five year old boy who was shot in the back in Darfur in October 2007, as he attempted to flee from a band of troops and militiamen who dragged several men praying from a mosque and killed them. The Sudanese government denied the acts were carried out by their troops. A tribal elder said Guran Avium was the youngest of a group of children who tried to flee, and who were shot by the troops. For days, I couldn’t get the image out of my mind of a five year old boy shot in the back as he tried to run away. “We can’t live in this kind of world,” I thought. And yet, this is the kind of world we live in. I vowed not to forget the boy, but it hardly seemed enough. What would it matter? I kept thinking about how we have the world we create, in terms of human society. We are creating the world every day, by our acts, one act at a time, and if we create systems of injustice and violence, that will be our world, and if we create systems of justice and compassion, that will be our world. I felt helpless when I read the story of this boy, but I decided I am not helpless; we are not helpless to start making a difference, however small and seemingly insignificant. One act at a time: as individuals and as communities, we have that potential, to begin creating the world we want.
Kathryn
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