The Darfur Awareness and Activism Training club and Amnesty International raised over $700 at a bake sale Feb. 29.

The DAATC is also promoting a screening of “The Devil Came on Horseback,” a documentary capturing the chaotic situation in Darfur.  The movie will be screened at Universal Studios April 12.

The money from both the screening and the bake sale will be donated to American Jewish World Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting the genocide in Darfur.

Along with baked goods, “Stop the Genocide” T-shirts were sold in a variety of colors and sizes.

“The bake sale was a huge success, and I am very proud,” DAATC founder and event organizer Shelby Layne ’09 said. “I also feel so supported by the school as a whole and how many kids came out to purchase baked goods and T-shirts on the day of the sale.”
The documentary by Brian Steidle deals with his “life-changing experience in Darfur and all that he observed there as a firsthand witness to genocide,” Layne said. There will also be a speaker who will share and take questions about the organization and a recent trip to the Darfur refugee camps.

Layne said she will also sell jewelry she has made.

The proceeds from the event will go to the JJW’s Solar Cooker project, which helps the prevention of the rape of the Darfur women in the refugee camps.

For $30, two solar-powered stoves are provided for a family in the refugee camps, eliminating the need for women to leave the refugee camp to collect firewood. It is on these excursions that they are more likely to be raped and beaten, Layne said.

“Now seeing just how much we are capable of, I am confident in and truly I look forward to what the future of the DAAT Club will hold in this first year and the years to come.”