By Elizabeth Willoughby on
Actress Mia Farrow began a 21-day hunger strike on 27 April to force the spotlight on the dire situation in Dafur.
Frustrated at the continued inattention to the plight of millions, she stated that she began her fast of water “in solidarity with the people of Darfur and as a personal expression of outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by and watch innocent men, women and children needlessly die of starvation, thirst and disease.”
Actor George Clooney, who has also campaigned for a political solution to the Dafur situation, supports Farrow’s attempt to bring some serious attention to it. So far, Farrow is feeling hungry but good, and is still able to post daily reports on her website
“I have a doctor coming to see me on Monday,” she says on her Day Four video blog. "The people [in Darfur refugee camps] have no doctors because Doctors Without Borders has been expelled. I have clean water that I can drink, and people there don’t have clean water because Oxfam isn’t there to repair the well pumps and the well pumps are breaking."
She is concerned that camp food stores are dwindling, that aid workers are unable to deliver what there is from Port Sudan to some camps and that latrines are overflowing, which could lead to disease.
However, she is grateful for the support she has been getting: “Some people are interested in how I am doing, but we need to be thinking of Darfur’s people. If my hunger brings focus to where it belongs, if more people know what is happening in Darfur and will raise their voices, then what I am going through now is well worth it.”
Copyright © 2009 Look to the Stars
