Almost a year ago, Beijing began to spread their 2008 Olympics motto: One World, One Dream. Shortly thereafter, a movement began to pressure Sudan’s largest foreign oil investor and UNSC ally, China. Now with the games less then two weeks away, our community needs to turn up the heat, and demand that the Chinese government, and all our global leaders, ensure that our world, and our dreams, represent and include those of Darfur.What are the dreams of the Darfuris whose lives have been filled with daily horrors, challenges and obstacles to their dreams? You have heard it before through past i-ACTs – they want peace and protection in order to ensure a safe passage home, and a chance to rebuild their lives. They want justice and a future.

As the i-ACT team prepares to bring our community the voices and stories of Darfur from refugee camps, where they have been trapped and forgotten by our leaders, athletes are moving into the Beijing Olympic Village. As NBC brings you thousands of hours of coverage of Olympic games, and athlete profiles about realizing dreams of the Gold, i-ACT will bring you the voices of those who have fled their homes under flames, violence, and hatred.

As the world celebrates humanity and the global community through competition and sportsmanship, people in Darfu r and refugee camps in Chad are starving and struggling to survive day-to-day.

Now more than ever, THEY NEED YOU to listen to their voices, look into their eyes and tell our leaders, China, NBC and your local community their stories. People are nervous that the recent ICC evidence brought forth by Moreno-Ocampo threatens the prospect for peace. But what peace has their been for Darfuri’s or for UNAMID troops? Now more than ever, with the world’s attention on humanity and global brotherhood, we need to share with others why Darfuri’s deserve to be part of One World, One Dream.

Starting August 1^st, i-ACT will bring you exclusive footage from the other Olympics, the other Dreams. Each day we will highlight a Darfur athlete. I am asking you to share this athlete’s profile with others. During the opening ceremony of the Olympics on August 8^th, Switch Over to Darfur will launch their own Olympics show through the 15^th. Please tune in and spread out, the stories you hear for these two weeks – the power to unite the world lies in your ability to take action on behalf of the innocent civilians of Darfur.

I Challenge You to Participate in the i-ACT Challenge.

HUMANITY BEFORE POLITICS.

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Edit: Originally sent to our mailing list on 16 June, 2008.

Hello Friends and Familia:

We are starting our second week in Chad, and for the first time in five trips we might not be able to visit a refugee camp. When we left camp Kounoungo this past January, our friend Yakoub told us that the people in his camp felt motivated by our trips and felt proud that we continued to come back. They feel connected to not just us, but to the communities that support them in the US and other countries.

Yakoub and other refugees are so grateful for the aid they receive to keep them alive, but they regain hope and energy when they hear the messages, see the faces, and learn the names of those that are doing selfless work every day to bring peace to Darfur. That “building of community” across continents is priceless. The i-ACT team remains committed to this.

We are in Abeche, in Eastern Chad, unable to move because of heavy fighting in the area. We will continue to report on the situation and how it affects aid work and the lives of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people. We will post video, when there is something visually worth posting. Otherwise, we will continue with journals, reports, and answering any comments and questions that you post on our blog. Click here to read our reports from Abeche.

Thank you for staying involved and for being one of those faces and names that Yakoub says he feels proud to know.

Paz,
Gabriel
for Katie-Jay, Colin, and Scott,
i-ACT Team in Abeche, Chad.

I’ve told you “we’re going back” three times in the past, but this one is a little different. The last time we left Chad after our visits to the refugee camps in the east, we left on a French military plane, being evacuated in the middle of an all out coup attempt that left an already unstable country and region in even worse conditions.

Soon after, the Sudanese government attacked Darfuri villages, displacing tens of thousands of more civilians. This was in February 2008. Of the over 13,000 that reached the border between Chad and Darfur, 8,000 are still sitting in the desert, waiting to be transferred to camp Mile, according to UNHCR. The insecurity has stopped the transfers indefinitely.

Services have been reduced and interrupted at almost all of the camps in Chad. Chadian security officers working at the camps have been attacked and killed, and humanitarian aid workers have been targets. Our friends in the camps, mostly women and children, continue to live the life of a refugee—but the life of a refugee in grave danger.

We are returning after ourselves having been in some danger. That also makes it different. Our experience at the hotel in N’Djamena had an effect on Katie-Jay and I and on all the people around us. We are not taking this lightly. We will take all precautions possible and will make decision based on the best information from experts on the ground.

We want to continue putting a face on the numbers and allowing the voice of the victims to be heard. The innocent civilians of Darfur need immediate protection, and sovereignty cannot be an excuse for inaction from the entire world.

Join us for i-ACT, staring June 10th and for twelve consecutive days of webcasts, interactive blog, and opportunities for action. Scott Warren, the outgoing National Director of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and Colin O’Brien, who served as the National High School Outreach Coordinator for STAND, will be going with us on the journey. Students have been the leaders of the Darfur movement, and we are looking for students and their communities to increase the heat and raise the noise this summer to bring peace to Darfur.

Paz,
Gabriel

The situation on the ground is getting worse. They are still in the capital, barred from leaving the hotel. The streets are empty, and the fighting is getting closer and closer. Read Google News for all the latest news stories from Chad. Katie-Jay was also interviewed by the BBC. Gabriel is still uploading reports from the ground, you can find them all here. Here’s the latest video from Gabriel:

It was a busy day yesterday! Gabriel, Connie and Yuen-Lin arrived home safely in time to watch i-ACT featured on San Francisco’s local ABC news last night (video and news article), as well had their question to the candidates answered in the CNN/YouTube presidential debate!

Please read article, by John Morlino: President Bush: Imagine Yourself as a Man in Darfur
Click here to read more »

目前种族灭绝统计数字:

• 死亡人数: 自2003年2月以来, 已超过40万人
• 死亡率: 每一天500人死亡, 每个月1万5千人死亡
• 流离失所者:　超过２５０万人

Gabriel, Connie and Yuen-Lin ask the American presidential candidates what they plan to do for Darfur.

• We use technology to reject the standard excuse of inaction - ignorance
• We debunk the myth that ordinary people cannot stop genocide
• We replace statistics with names, faces and stories

The age of bystanders should long have passed - we have entered an age of knowledge which empowers us to protect. Join us as an upstander. Become an i-ACTivist.