The desks in teacher Jacqui Larson's classroom at Crater High School are empty.

To the pupils clustered in corners, junior Haley Baier says, "This is your village after a janjaweed attack. Everyone is dead or dying. Only two people made it to a refugee camp. This is what is happening to real people."

Since early 2003, a conflict in Darfur, Sudan, between two nonArab rebel groups and Arabic janjaweed militias, which are believed to be backed by the Sudanese government, has claimed an average of nearly 10,000 lives per month, according to a survey of about 1,136 refugees by the Coalition for International Justice. Many of the deaths result from janjaweed attacks against civilians.

The monthly death toll roughly amounts to the population of Central Point.

The high school's international club has launched a campaign to raise awareness in Southern Oregon about the conflict as well as funds for organizations trying to stop it.

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Through the effort, "I'm hoping to accomplish education because I think when people are educated about something it gives them more willpower and confidence to act on it," says sophomore Chad Patterson, the international club's president.

At 5 p.m. Friday, the club will present a film, "Diaries of Darfur," to the community at the Crater High Performing Arts Center, 655 N. Third St., Central Point.

During the past two weeks, members have given presentations about the conflict to about 30 classes at the school.

The presentation, the fruit of two months of research, includes facts about the conflict and a slide show of photographs from Darfur. In one by South African photographer Kevin Carter, a malnourished toddler crawls in the dust near a refugee camp in Sudan. Behind him, a vulture waits. Carter committed suicide three months after taking the photograph.

After the presentation, students are given letters of the alphabet and told to leave their desks and group together by letter. From each corner of the room, a student reads about an experience of a refugee, from being raped by janjaweed soldiers to watching an entire village perish.

"A lot of those people aren't alive today," Chad says.

Club members have written and collected more than 300 letters urging U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to support sending more aid to Darfur refugees, strengthening sanctions against the Sudanese government and dedicating more funds to pay for African Union peacekeepers. They hope to raise $1,000 for the Save Darfur Coalition through the sale of bracelets and donations as part of a nationwide fundraising competition between high schools.

"It felt very powerful to know our school was doing something to try to help," says sophomore Cody Craft after listening to the club's presentation. "It's really cool."

The Coalition for International Justice estimates that more than 400,000 have died in the conflict. The United States has claimed that attacks against civilians represent genocide against Darfur's Christian black Africans. The United Nations has said the conflict has produced crimes against humanity but not genocide.

In 2005, the U.S. State Department set the death toll at 63,000 to 146,000.

The violence has forced more than 2 million people to flee to refugee camps in Sudan and Chad.

"I hope the genocide in Darfur will stop before it gets to the point of the holocaust," says Haley, the club's vice president. "People should write their legislators and protest what's going on."

On the Web: www.savedarfur.org.

Reach reporter Paris Achen by calling 541-776-4459 or pachen@mailtribune.com.