Sharing the Story

Numbers have a way of numbing people. Statistics bombard us about everything, from how many out of ten dentists recommend a certain product to the gruesome statistics of genocide. It’s too easy to distance ourselves from the horror when it’s couched in numbers – that’s why I tell stories.

Stories have the ability to draw an audience closer to a topic than anything else. Stories bring humanity to pain and context for atrocities. It is much harder to ignore something once you care for it.

I jump at every opportunity to share my story of growing up in Chad on the border with the Darfur region of Sudan. The latest chance was with a local newspaper, the Cary News. The Sept. 4, 2007, edition contained a profile of my childhood and a rather interesting photograph of me in traditional clothing!

To read the Cary News article about me, click here, or go to www.carynews.com and check out the Names & Faces section under the Arts section.

This article has sparked several follow-up conversations, which is the point of sharing my story in the first place. Due to this article, several local groups are going to learn more about the crisis facing my friends in Africa and a local high school has a mentor for his senior project of raising awareness about Darfur in his neighborhood. Stories have a way of building upon themselves.