Darfur Heroics: 500 Protest in Rochester

Call for action on Darfur is issued
Hundreds at event protest genocide and learn how to help
Erica Bryant Staff writer

(January 22, 2007) — More than 500 people packed into the Asbury First United Methodist Church on Sunday to demonstrate against genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and to pray for peace.

The voices that came from the podium stressed the need for them to turn their concern into action.

Speaker Manute Bol, a Sudan native and a retired National Basketball Association player, was greeted with a standing ovation when he rose to talk about the worsening plight of black Africans in Darfur. "I hear people say, 'We want to send food, we want to send medicine,'" he said, "but when people try to get the food, there is no protection."

Call for action on Darfur is issued