From Baltimore to Darfur -- How to Save a Life
ABC's Jim Sciutto tours refugee camps and finds hope amid the suffering.
May 17, 2007 — -- The landscape of Darfur is an almost endless picture of hardship. The past four years of war have driven millions of men, women and children from their homes into sprawling, miserable refugee camps.
But during our trip to report on the suffering, we found one oasis of hope.
In the ZamZam refugee camp, which is now home to more than 40,000 people, the Safe Motherhood Center treats hundreds of women and their babies every day. Here, they fight disease and malnutrition, and educate women in the basics of safe childbirth and child care.
"Before the clinic, we had no help," one mother told me. "What would I do without this place?"
However, none of this would be here without the efforts of one American woman a world away in Baltimore. It all began a year ago when Patricia Crawford read a newspaper story about Darfur.
"There was an article in The New York Times last May around Memorial Day, and it was talking about how the camp was in danger of shutting down due to lack of funds," Crawford said. "So I was like, 'This can't happen.' I then tried to kind of surf my way through [the Web] to figure out who was involved and how I could get involved some way."
Crawford contacted Relief International, which runs the clinic, to find out how she could make a difference and ended up helping herself, too.
"I think I was going through a kind of pre-midlife crisis," Crawford said. "So it was all of this 'woe is me,' all of my friends are doing all of these wonderful things and when I read the article I was like, here's a bunch of people who would probably trade places with me in a second. And the more I thought about the circumstances -- their circumstances -- the less I thought about what was missing in my life. So it made me feel -- the more I focused on other people, the less sad I was about myself."
$5 Is a 'Real Help'
She developed a fund-raising plan and soon raised $10,000 around Baltimore and Washington, starting with friends and family but gradually expanding to include everyone from cabdrivers at Penn Station in Baltimore to the street flower vendor to the ambassador of South Africa.
"People started calling because they heard about us through friends of theirs who were contacted," Crawford explained. "It just all took this kind of exponentially branching effect. And everybody kind of said, 'Oh, I want to help. I want to help.' So I got offers coming in from almost everywhere."
The effect has been very real. Doctors at the clinic said the money has already saved hundreds of lives.
"Just $5 is a real help," said Dr. Khanlar Hajiyez, who supervises the clinic. "Five dollars can save one person's life."
Life in the Refugee Camps
After four years of war, 4 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid in Darfur. Of the 200,000 deaths, most have resulted from starvation and disease.
Today, the camps are no longer temporary havens but cities with brick houses and street signs. They depend on aid. (Most food is donated by the U.S. government.) And they are under constant threat of attack by Darfur's many warring factions.
The security situation is always tenuous. When we were visiting a food rationing center, we were told to leave immediately because two vehicles had been carjacked in the area. There is always a reason to be on guard here.
Earlier this year, security threats closed the only other Safe Motherhood Center in a nearby refugee camp, cutting off thousands of women from basic medical care. Its closure makes the remaining clinic even more vital.
This Tuesday, back in Baltimore, we showed Crawford the video we filmed in the clinic. It was the first time she had seen the results of her work.
"It's just indescribable," she said as she watched. "It's like I've got to do more, but very happy I was able to do this much at all."
It is one small gesture of charity that has made a world of difference.