Holiday déjà vu
It was my task to write something about the holidays and relate the meaning and experience of the holidays to the lives of our friends in the refugee camps. As I stare at the blank Word Doc, instead of the spirit of Christmas coming over me, what I get is this overwhelming feeling of déjà vu!
It just feels like I’ve said “this” already, and said it many, many times: “There are people that are suffering, and they are just like us. They are the victims of humanity’s most horrible crime, genocide. There is joy in participating compassionately in a community that extends across oceans and continents.”
Over the last five years, my experience of the holidays has changed drastically. It means a lot more…and a lot less. When I’m sitting with my kids and family, this alone is the meaning of the holidays. It has become a very simple and basic experience, where I don’t let the rest of the noise get to me. It’s about family and community.
Should we think about genocide d
uring a time of joy and celebration? Yes. I can assure you that our friends in the camps are thinking about us, and they have us in their prayers.
For the few of you that read this, I ask for one simple holiday gift…or maybe two. First, write one sentence or a short paragraph, speaking directly to our refugee friends and post it as a comment. We will take these to camps with us on our next trip in the beginning of 2010. You have no idea how powerful it is for them to feel connected to you and to a community “out there” that is thinking of them and working on their behalf. Second, pledge to check back in with us in January. We’ll work together to make some serious noise and push our leaders to act decisively to finally bring peace, protection, and justice to Darfur and all of Sudan.
Peace,
Gabriel for the SGN/i-ACT Team
Help Provide a Mode of Communication
With your help in 2010, we can launch a technology program that creates an ongoing mode of communication between refugees living in the camps and you and your community. CommKit, created by our team member Yuen-Lin after he visited the camps, is an all-in-one communications package that allows refugees in one of the most remote, unconnected areas in the world to send and receive videos, photos, and messages using satellites.
This year, Yuen-Lin was able to train several refugees on a prototype of CommKit. Watch the short video below to get a preview of the CommKit in action. They enjoyed it so much! Just like here, it was the younger generation who quickly understood the technology and was helping their teachers!
With your help we can deliver the first ever CommKit, train refugees to use technology, and provide ongoing satellite communication
Become an i-ACT Ambassador: Build Community, Connect Individuals, Raise Money
By becoming an i-ACT Ambassador and making a monthly pledge, we can create this ongoing communication. Your valuable time and energy is spent building a new culture of participation here in the United States and in the largely forgotten refugee camps filled with Darfuris. You become connected and once you are feel this deep relationship, you are able to introduce your friends and family to Adam, Selma, Rahma and more. Through all these relationships, change begins.
i-ACT Ambassadors:
- Make a monthly contribution (via check, paypal or credit card) to ensure that i-ACT can continue our work;
- Receive monthly video updates and actions from i-ACT team members;
- Participate in live video conversations with refugees when the i-ACT team is on the ground in Darfur refugee camps;
- Form deep personal relationships with refugees, communicate with them using innovative technology, and send/receive video and photo messages;
- Find one more i-ACT Ambassador to join;
- Are encouraged to share your relationship the relationship formed with Darfuris with your local community through informal conversations, events, presentations, and fund raising efforts.
As an i-ACT Ambassador you are raising awareness and funds, but most importantly you are joining a community.
Click here to become an i-ACT Ambassador.
i-ACT Canvas Prints Available
Friends,
this past summer I had the incredible opportunity to travel as part of the i-ACT team to Camp Djabal in Eastern Chad. Most of my time was spent making sure our live video streams were ready to go, but I was able to sneak a few minutes in here and there to snap some photos with my medium-format film cameras.
I took a few of my favorite photos and had 16″ x 16″ gallery wrapped canvas prints made from the negatives. There are 4 different prints, and we are offering them to our supporters for a minimum of donation of $250 (each) to i-ACT. They have wire hangers installed and are ready to be hung. Please contact us at eric@iactivism.org if you would like one.
– Eric
ACTION ALERT
President Obama, the time to impose pressure and consequences is now!
In wake of pre-election human rights violations by Government, please join over 50 organizations representing Sudan advocates and Sudanese expatriates from around the country, together with activist-actress Mia Farrow and Sudan expert Eric Reeves, in asking President Obama to impose consequences on the Khartoum Government for public violations of human rights in advance of the elections and for the eroding situation on the ground.
Call the White House at 202.456.1111 and tell the President:
I stand with over 50 organizations that sent you an open letter asking for consequences and pressure on the Government of Sudan that ensure credible elections, US support of the ICC, multilateral enforcement of the UN Security Council arms embargo, and to direct Special Envoy Gration to make public an assessment of humanitarian services and brief the House and Senate on the classified documents that are a part of the Administration’s Sudan policy.
Please e-mail President Obama. Copy and paste this message, and feel free to add your own thoughts.
Dear President Obama:
I stand with over 50 organizations that sent you an open letter asking for consequences and pressure on the Government of Sudan.
In the open letter, advocates recommend that President Obama 1) Lead the United States and the broader international community in applying the pressures necessary to ensure that the conditions for credible elections mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) are enacted and implemented without further delay, 2) Act immediately to secure multilateral asset freezes and travel bans on National Congress Party (NCP) leaders, multilateral support of the International Criminal Court cases against key Sudanese officials, multilateral enforcement of the UN Security Council arms embargo; and denial of multilateral debt relief, 3) Direct Special Envoy Gration, the State Department and USAID to conduct and make public an assessment of the current status of humanitarian services and 4) Direct Special Envoy Gration to promptly brief the appropriate House and Senate committees on the contents of the classified documents that are part of the Administration’s Sudan policy.
To read full letter: http://savedarfurma.org/2009-1215 Press release on letter to Obama final.pdf
Sincerely,
(your name)
Please take the extra minute to send the same message to Secretary of State Clinton.
