Debbie Bodkin has seen a lot of human misery in her job as a sergeant with the Waterloo Regional Police Service.
But nothing prepared her for what she saw and heard interviewing Darfur refugees in 2004 and 2005, as a volunteer for fact-finding missions by the U.S. and the United Nations.
Her experience was so emotional that upon her return to Canada, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
While in Darfur, she talked to young girls who had been gang-raped; consoled a man who'd seen his son, wife and parents killed before his eyes just hours before; and documented hundreds of stories of families killed, villages destroyed, and rapes at the hands of the Sudan government-funded janjaweed militia.
Debbie Bodkin (Charla Jones/The Globe and Mail)
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Internet Links
- The Globe's Nation Builder of 2007
- Debbie Bodkin's web site (under construction)
- Save Darfur web site
- Amnesty International's Darfur site
- Mia Farrow's Darfur web site
- Save Darfur Canada
- Students Taking Action Now: Darfur
- Sudan Research, Analysis, and Advocacy
Ms. Bodkin returned to Canada with high hopes that the West would intervene to save the people of Darfur. After all, more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced from the region since 2003, and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has called the killings genocide.
But still the West has done nothing.
Ms. Bodkin fell into a deep depression on her return — triggered not, she believes, by the horrors she'd seen and heard, but by her feeling of powerlessness.
She couldn't sleep, she couldn't laugh, she couldn't look at any of her 800 digital photos of Africa.
Her usual efforts to cheer herself up — a little chocolate, some nice red wine — tasted like ashes.
Then, a counsellor diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suggested that talking about her experiences would help.
Ms. Bodkin, who was one of The Globe's Nation Builder of 2007 nominees, started telling her story — to schools, rallies, civic groups, conferences — and she hasn't stopped. She has bookings through November.
Ms. Bodkin kindly agreed to join us online to answer questions about her experiences in Africa and about recovering from PTSD.
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Rebecca Dube, Globe Life reporter: Hi everyone and thanks for joining us, and thanks especially to Debbie Bodkin for taking time out of her day to answer questions.
I first heard Debbie on CBC Radio last year and I was so impressed with her integrity and her compassion, and fascinated by how this ordinary woman had become such a strong crusader for the people of Darfur. Sometimes global problems are so big that we feel powerless to make a difference and we just give up, but Ms. Bodkin didn't give up and she has made a difference in the world.
Of course, her decision to get involved came at a price. When she returned to Canada, she suffered from PTSD. Luckily she discovered that talking about her experiences helped, so she's shared her story with all of us. There are lots of good reader questions for Ms. Bodkin, so we'll try to get to as many as possible in the next hour.
Jesper Haaps from Hatzic Canada writes: It's getting harder and harder to live in a world that countenances, or at best ignores, such atrocities as those occurring in Darfur (and previously, in Rwanda). When I mention it to people, I get a blank stare or even discomfort. How do we live among our friends, neighbours, and even family, when we are confronted by their indifference and even callousness? I already have PTSD (from childhood abuse, among other life events), but I am currently dealing with a deep despair about people in general and I honestly don't know where to go with that.
Debbie Bodkin: I know exactly what you mean about sort of feeling like you just want to give up on the goodness of mankind when you see how people do not want to hear about anything that might not sit well with them.
My sister is very much like that, she is so sensitive that she can't deal with hearing a whole lot of horrible things happening in the world because she knows she can't immediately stop it and she can get so upset she wouldn't let her kids out of the house for fear of bad things happening.
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