Word on Ahmat

I recently received an e-mail from Ali, an aid worker at camps Mile and Kounoungo.  He gave me word on Ahmat, the English speaking young man we met on Day 11 of i-ACT. Ahmat is OK, working a few hours a day at a “restaurant” in the camp.  He is no longer studying English, since his teacher left for Sudan.  His father is also in Sudan.  Workers told us that “being in Sudan” many times means that they are either dead or fighting with the rebels. We do not know for sure in this case. Ahmat lives with his mother, two sisters, Mayadine and Yihad, and a brother, Moujahid.  His mother was pregnant when his village was attacked, but she lost the baby because of the traumatic event.  Ahmat’s family had many animals, but they were killed by the Janjaweed. Their 51 camels were killed.

Hello everyone, Since coming back from the camps…

Hello everyone,

Since coming back from the camps, I have not really been writing too much here. I’m going to change that, since I think it’s a great way to stay connected and let you know about the situation back in the camps and Darfur and about ways that you can become involved and be a par to the solution.

Here in the US, efforts for Darfur are starting to heat up in a good way. There are many groups doing work to bring attention to the crisis and create pressure to change it. April 2006 will be a national month of awareness and action. I will soon let you know of the different campaigns, including the Million Voices for Darfur, in which we will collect one million signed postcards to be delivered to the White House on April 30th.

In Los Angeles, April 7 will mark the opening of Camp Darfur, a mock refugee camp that will serve to create awareness, educate, and create action to stop the genocide in Darfur. More info to come soon!

Please stay in touch.
Paz

Sharing a Note

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share this e-mail from someone that followed i-ACT:

Dear Gabriel

I like to thank you and your team for going to see and hear the voices and show the video of your 21 days with the people of Darfur in their camps. I am originally from Darfur living right now in New York City and still have family members live over there in the camps where you visited. I spend most of my childhood traveling from village to village with my father enjoying the peaceful and lovely nature of the people in Darfur.
What happened in Darfur affected me deeply as it has effected their lives in Darfur. We companied very hard here in the US and all over to stop all the destruction and the ongoing genocide on the people of Darfur. As the act of genocide committed by evil peoples it needs real heroes to stop it and With all the information you brought more people will get involve and thousand of new heroes will emerges to erase the word GENOSIDE from the world. I appreciate and value your trip to the reign and want to thank you for all the works you have done.
I/we wish you, your family and all the people around you happy holidays.

Djudo

Back!

Hey friends, familia:
We’re back in California, enjoying the comforts of home. Besides struggling through some serious jet-lag, I’m really feeling great urgency and energy for working harder to help the people we met, and the millions more, to get back to their homes. I really missed my home and family during the month I was away, but I always knew that I was coming back. I look forward to working with all of you on making “home” for the people of Darfur a reality once again.

Happy?

On Air France plane sitting at N’D airport

11:54pm

“Did you accomplish everything you wanted to accomplish?” Chris asked me.

On the field, given the challenges and our limitations, I’m “happy” with what we did. We presented the human side of the story, going beyond the numbers. Now we have some faces, happy and sad, that go along with the ungraspable immensity of the crisis. We could have done a lot better; no doubt about it. It was a great learning experience.

The work in Chad is only one side of the project. The other, very important, side is turning what i-ACT produced into clear and intense pressure that contributes to changing the situation in Darfur, for the refugees, the IDPs, and any other term you want to use to describe what they are. With i-ACT, it became clear that what “they” are is “US!” They are a part of the same humanity that we all are a part of, and their smiles, and their suffering, speaks our same language.

Please help me create this pressure. Be a part of SGN and i-ACT’s new phase. Sign up for our newsletter. We wills oon be sending out a list of specific campaigns and ways that YOU can help.

Paz

Lost Generation

N’Djamena

8:01pm

We are down to the last few hours in Chad. I was just going over the stories we heard during our days at the camps, especially what the ones belonging to the young people. There was Muhammad, Ahmat, Farha, and Eisha.

Muhammad we found making bricks. Ahmat is our English speaking friend. Farha, at fourteen, is taking care of her home. Eisha, at fifteen, is married. They are all bright young people. Having to be men and women very early. They are the future of their communities. What will happen with this generation of adolescent Darfurians?

They will all soon reach the age where there is no more education for them at the camps. For the boys, it means doing nothing or, very likely, joining one of the rebel groups. There are not many young men in the camps. Many were killed during the attacks on their villages; others join in the only option for joining, the fighting.

For the girls, they will more than likely be married off, an arranged marriage. They will risk their lives on a daily basis, going out to collect firewood. They will work, building huts, cooking food, and washing clothes. They will also have children and take care of them.

Back in Darfur, while maybe not ideal by western standards, they would have continued with secondary education, and some could go on to college at the larger towns They are now stuck in limbo, with an uncertain and dangerous future ahead.

Out of Abeche

9:38am

It was an exciting, if unexpected, way to start the day. We thought that our flight to N’Djamena departed at 11:30am, so that we had time to leisurely get our things together. At 8:00am, the guesthouse guard came running, saying that there was a UNHCR car outside looking for us. The UNHCR staff told me that he was taking us to the airport. I asked for ten minutes to get ready and pack, but ten minutes was too long; we had to rush and do it in five.

We made it, though, and I’m right now writing from the plane, flying high above the desert. I am so grateful for the UNHCR sending a car for us. We were not expecting it, and were arranging to get to the airport on our own. The plane would have left us! I heard that all flights to N’D are booked through the 20th of December. It would have been a much extended stay in Abeche.

UNHCR’s Ginette Le Breton is who saved us. She was out of her office in Abeche on a trip to Guereda, but she left word for a car to go get us. She made things so much easier for us during our entire journey. I really did not expect this kind of support and “looking out” for us.

Speaking of Ginette and of kind people, it was refreshing to find some that had not been turned into cynics and were able to keep their hearts warm and open. The conditions out here are such that burn-out might be an epidemic among workers at the agencies and organizations. Then you find a person like Ginette, who goes out of her way to find shoes for a young Darfurian that made it to Abeche, after hearing that his mother was alive and seen in a refugee camp far from the one he was at. Sure, finding shoes for one (large footed) youth is not going to change the crisis, but it is the human touch, the person-to-person exchange, that offers a refreshing breeze of hope.

Emmanuel, from UNHCR’s Guereda office, and whom you met in one of the videos, is another example of a warm heart at work. He does not get lost in the numbers. He takes into consideration the humanity of individuals at the camps and knows that there is a lot more than just getting them the right number of calories and liters. “They need to go home,” he says.

Well, I should be home by late Thursday night. What just hit me is that I have to report to work on the following Monday. I have to start earning a salary again, something that stopped a little too long ago. So, not too much time for R&R, but I’m sure going to enjoy this coming weekend with my family!

Paz

Commenting Back

5:50pm

Title: Commenting back

Hey Shelley:
Thank YOU! I look forward to working with you back in California; there is so much we can do! Let’s start increasing the pressure and making some more NOISE, so that our representatives and the rest of the international community take true responsibility and ACT. Let’s start directly helping some of the children we’ve met, sending them school materials, blankets, and toys. The second stage of Stop Genocide Now’s i-ACT is about to begin.

Hola Jav:
I’m also very much looking forward to kicking it back home with all the family. I wouldn’t mind getting on a plane right about now. We are pretty much stuck inside the guesthouse in Abeche. I’m getting some good time to write, but, after the rush of going to the camps, this is a bit restless. Also, we are just not sure what is happening or going to happen here in Chad. Everyone says, “Something is going on.” We asked the guy in charge of security for UNHCR, and he said that he was not sure what’s happening, but they’ll be ready to move, if needed. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, wishing the best for our Chadian friends.

Hola Moms:
Gracias por tu nota. Yo tambien espero que nuestro trabajo aqui tenga algun impacto. Voy a hacer lo posible para que si lo tenga. Nos vemos ya pronto !

Hey Juan:
Thanks for transcribing Mom’s note and for your regular comments. I’m glad you liked day 21; I did also. From the start, I’ve felt a bit nervous about if what we were sending good and effective. I’m sure it could have been a lot better, but I guess we did the best that we could, given our limitations. There was never a lack of effort, though. Gracias por todo Juan!

Mi Wicho!
Me da gusto saber que me has estado acompanando en el viaje. El nino del que hablas, el del brazo roto, se lo quebro jugando futbol, asi como miles de otros ninos por todo el mundo. Me gusto tanto ver que, con todo lo que han sufrido, siguen jugando y riendo. Me avente un buen jueguito de futbol con ellos. Todos los campamentos tienen clinica que pueden atender ese tipo the lastimaduras. Muchos de los refugiados tambien siguen yendo a curanderos tradicionales de sus tribus. Para el numero de pesonas que hay, necesitan muchos mas doctores y personal medico. Wicho, muchos saludos a todos en Monterrey!

Hey Rachel:
Thank you for keeping things running back home. I’m sure it was not easy, and you must have spent many nights with little sleep, while coordinating everything for Stop Genocide Now and i-ACT. What a privilege to be working with you and the rest of the team…all volunteers!

Hi Connie:
Thank you so much for taking in the stories of the people we met and now going out to share them with others. That is what it’s all about. There is so much power in their stories! They ARE our brothers and sisters. Let’s get them home!

Paz

i-ACT Day Twenty-One

11:40pm

Concrete assistance

Hello all:
I’ve been looking for ways for us, through Stop Genocide Now (SGN), to get some direct assistance to some of the children and families we’ve met at the refugee camps. Some of you have asked, including Shelley from MSMC and Ray from O.net, and it was one my goals for the trip to connect with an organization on the ground that could directly distribute needed materials to some of the people fleeing the genocide. I think I found the way. The new person in charge of coordinating activities at the camps for CCF, Asa, very much believes it can be done. We are making a list of the things that are needed the most for the refugees. We are thinking that SGN could focus on one camp to start with, camp Kounoungo. We could fundraise and/or gather materials and work to really make a difference there, using the Child-Friendly Centers as a focus point for distribution. CCF would make sure that what is contributed through SGN would go directly to the needs we specify, and we would get reports of how things are going. I like the idea of being flexible and quick to respond to immediate needs as they arise, and it’s going to take a lot of work. People died last winter because there were not enough blankets; the same might happen this winter, and it might be too late to do something. Shelley asked about school materials. It is definitely one of the things that are greatly needed. For this, money contributions would probably be the best, and then CCF would work through already established contacts to get the best prices for this region, given the transportation challenges. For other things, such as learning toys that cannot be found in the region, we could collect and send, knowing that the great cost to get it over here would be outweighed by the benefit to the children. Play therapy is so much needed for so many of the children that have gone through intense trauma. I’ll work more on the details, but I trust Asa, who will be working out of Abeche and just signed a one year contract. Now, I still very much believe that advocacy through education and awareness that leads to concrete pressure and action is the key to changing the course of the crisis. We need to create a wave of pressure to stop the atrocities and help get these people back to a peaceful home. So, I will also ask that you help us to raise funds for this purpose. We would not have been able to produce i-ACT if it was not for the generous help of so many volunteers and donors. Please help SGN on these two fronts at the same time. OK, I will give you more details soon. Thank you to all for wanting to help.

Paz

Ps. I’m in complete darkness out here, except for the pc and the moon. Electricity went out in Abeche about an hour ago.

Hello friends, familia:

You are all familia, and we now have extended family out here in Chad and Darfur. I’ve been telling the people I meet in the camps of all the wonderful people “back home” that care about what is happening in Darfur, and that we all share their wish for a return to a peaceful home. Thank you so much for staying with i-ACT and becoming actively involved. Let’s keep it up! Stop Genocide Now and i-ACT will continue full-force, working to create awareness that leads to action. You are now a part of this movement.

We will be posting more material gathered during the 21 days of i-ACT, including what the children of Kounoungo recorded themselves with disposable cameras. We will also be packaging and making the material available for everyone to use, so that we can make more and more NOISE. I need your voice and your help.

I know that you will be asked to contact the President for Day 21’s call to action. Here is my letter to him, which I wrote while at Oure Cassoni. Please pass it on.

Dear President Bush:

Farha is a fourteen year old girl refugee who lost her father when her village was attacked during the ongoing genocidal campaign in Darfur, Sudan. She lives in Refugee Camp Oure Cassoni, on the Chad-Darfur border, along with another 30,000 Darfurians. Farha is in charge of taking care of her younger siblings, since her mother went looking for a son that became separated during the attack. Her mother has been gone for forty one days; they have not heard from her. Farha and the other refugees at Oure Cassoni live in constant fear because of the lack of security in the camp and surroundings. Thanks to donor nations, like the United States, they receive food and water to survive. They also receive assistance from non-governmental organizations. I strongly believe that the United States can do a lot better, and it would not allow its own children to live in such conditions.

Through this letter, and the 21 days of videos we have been collecting as a part of Stop Genocide Now’s project, i-ACT, I am passing on Farha and her people’s desperate plea for help. They want to return home. They want to return to a peaceful Darfur. Please use your leadership in doing all that it takes to insure immediate security for the people of Darfur.

As the nation that appropriately declared the crisis in Darfur genocide, we must now embrace the responsibility to act. I know that the many wonderful people that that have been participating in i-ACT would agree.

Paz,
Gabriel Stauring
Stop Genocide Now
At Refugee Camp Oure Cassoni, on the Chad-Darfur border

Sunday in Abeche
9:39 am

It’s a quiet Sunday morning in Abeche. I have not heard anything new about the situation here in Chad, and no news is good news; I think. Bechara is washing the Toyota Land Cruiser, so that Mansour, the owner, can take it. We won’t need a car anymore. The next leg of the journey is by plane, to N’Djamena.

I didn’t tell you about our exciting flight from Bahai to Abeche. It was our “closest call” of the whole trip! The pilots were trainees, with a trainer sitting behind them, in the passenger’s section, nervously gesturing and pointing at instruments they should be adjusting all during the flight. Every now and then, the trainer would look back at us and give us a wide-eyed look with a half smile.

The landing in Abeche was the kicker. The small two engine plane did a sharp turn that then became a sharp dive for the runway. The trainer stood up and leaned half of his body into the cockpit, pulling at levers to the right position. As the plane got close to the runway, the pilot pulled the nose of the plane up, and we bounced on the ground. When we bounced back down, the plane was going sideways, skidding at an angle to the runway. I thought it was a sure crash. The trainer put his head down, turning it to the side, away from the cockpit, as if not to look at what was coming. He is a blond man with very light skin, which turned almost blood-red in those few but long seconds. The plane then straightened and finished bouncing to a finally smooth run. The young trainer looked back at us, with the red on his face having turned to dead-white, and said, “I don’t think it would have killed us.”

When the plane stopped, he hurried to the back, opened the door, jumped out of the plane, and briskly walked far away from it. He lit a cigarette and paced back and forth, kicking sand on the field and puffing smoke.

I’m looking forward to our flight to N’Djamena this coming Tuesday :-)

Commenting Back

12/11 5:08pm

Title: Commenting back

Hello Tom!
I’m sitting here in the middle of the yard of the CCF guesthouse, with the pc and satellite modem, reading your and other people’s comments. Thanks for helping out with the team back home and for staying in touch with us out here; it really makes a difference. I’m also looking forward to being back home. I’ve already been thinking so much about how to do more. Please say hi to your wife and beautiful baby; see you soon!

Hi Patty Williams:
The Oregon forest sounds pretty nice! There’s not much green out here in Eastern Chad. I love the desert, but trees can be wonderful also. My diet has not been the best either. Again, there are not many greens to be had. I shouldn’t really complain; I’ve had more than enough calories each day; too many, maybe, since I’ve been drinking the coke with all of its regular sugar; no diet coke out here, no matter how hard I look. I also eat a lot of simple sugars, coming from the white bread; there’s no whole-wheat bread and no whole grain rice; not much fruit either. I’ve had to eat some red meat, which I had not been doing for about fifteen years. There are just not many options though. Wow, thinking about food is making me hungry. I could sure use a turkey burger right about now!

Hey Tere:
Wow, Patty in the forest of Oregon and you in Puerto Vallarta. I’ve seen a lot of sand, but there are no oceans close to Chad. I’ve felt a bit restless today, used to running out to the camps, coming back to work on the videos, and then uploading in the middle of the night. I’ve been thinking a lot about the beautiful people I met along the way. The story and faces that keep coming back to me are the ones belonging to Farha and her sisters. As it gets close to being dark, I think of her having to be the strength and comfort for her siblings, with her father dead and her mother away for a month and a half. Camp Oure Cassoni is also the one at which the refugees feel unsafe, even inside of the camp. I hope her mother gets back soon.

5:30pm

Title: Commenting back

Hey Maria N:
That is a great question you ask: Are the Sudanese refugees that are born in the camps inside of Chad recognized by the Chadian government as citizens? I do not have the answer, but I will go look for it tomorrow, Monday. Thanks for staying with us, Mary. How’s soc. 164 at MSMC going? When do you go out on Christmas vacation? I’m looking forward to see you all soon.

Hola mi Zaharita!
Si, vamos a tener cuidado por aca. Creo que ha estado todo tranquilo aqui; cuando menos no hemos oido de nada malo. Dales un abrazo a Mimi y a mi Gabo-gabo-gabo. Ya pronto vamos a la playa de verdad, en Hermosa.

Hello Irma!
Yes, I did get this way before starting the journey back home. We’re still in Abeche tonight and tomorrow, and then we fly out to the capital on Tuesday and to Paris and home on Wednesday night. I’m also kind of looking forward to the long flights home; it will be a chance to “decompress” at high altitude. A big hug to you and all the little ones!

Pam:
Thank you so much for that info on Chad; very interesting! It’s curious that there is no mention of the three generals that resigned; it’s supposed to be a pretty big deal. It was interesting to hear Akaye speak about his feelings about the refugee situation. Akaye, our Chadian interpreter, was saying that he believe that the people of Chad should be very welcoming of the Darfurian refugees. He says it is the right thing to do because they are people, just the same as those on this side of the border. He also said, though, that you just never know when things could go wrong in Chad, and it could be Chadians pouring out of their country looking for safety with the neighbors. I think that many here have a sense of a deteriorating political and safety situation. Part of my heart will be staying in this border area.

Hey Juan Carlos:
It was such a strange feeling seeing confirmation of the upload of Day 21, sitting here in this garden at about 1:30am last night. I’m still not sure how we all pulled it off, but it was definitely a team effort. All the people that work out here at the different agencies are also very amazed. They had not quite seen “journalists” like us! Hey, it was really cool getting messages from you and all of your family (little Brandon is excused, until he learns how to write). Lex, we’ll be able to bring some great material to your Amnesty International Club at Redondo Union High. Tell hi to Mom, and good luck with transcribing her writing :-)

i-ACT Day Twenty

Commenting back
9:05 pm

Chacho!
No sabes el gusto que me dio leer tu comentario. Me saludas mucho a tu familia y a todos en Monterrey. Si, yo tambien me acuerdo mucho de nuestros tiempos juntos de jovenes (no que estemos viejos…para nada !). Le platicaba aqui a mi companero, Chris, que nos suviamos al techo de mi casa en Monterrey a tomar ron con coca y platicar sobre la existencia y nuestra razon de ser. Yo tambien espero que pronto podamos pasar rato juntos y me falta conocer a tus chiquillos ! Un abrazo mi Chacho.

Chacho is and I grew up together in Monterrey, Mexico. He now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and children. We have stayed close friends. We had many adventures together, along with some other friends and my younger brother Juan Carlos, who has been helping with i-ACT.

Curfew
9:15 pm

It’s Saturday night in Abeche, Chad. We’ve been advised that UNHCR has called for a curfew tonight, recommending that everyone abstain from going out. There has been a noticeable increase in the military presence in town. We have also heard that three generals have resigned from the Chadian military, which probably means increased instability in all of the country. I was somewhat glad that we would be staying in Abeche, instead of N’Djamena, for the next couple of days, thinking that I felt more at ease with the security here compared with the capital. Now I’m not so sure. We have our seats reserved for the Tuesday morning Abeche-to-N’Djamena flight, and our flight to Paris leaves Wednesday night (actually Thursday, 12:30am).

If anyone finds any information on Chad’s current situation, feel free to post it here on a comment.

Congratulations Mimi!
12:55 am

Mimi’s soccer team won the championship! :-) Felicidades Mimi!
Te extrano mi Chiquita, pero ya pronto voy. Un abrazo y un beso. A todas las familias de aqui les platico de ti.
Tu papi.

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