Cross Country Caravan for Darfur

Liz Brown

22 years old from San Francisco, Graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University I am a driver on this trip

Very excited about bringing awareness and traveling the country on this adventure!

Jeffery Litsey

Jeffrey Litsey – joins us in Omaha I am Jeff Litsey, 24 from Indianapolis, IN. I’ve lived there all my life, and I am trying to figure out what my next step will be. I believe that I have been blessed with the responsibility to share anything I can with whoever I can, and this responsibility will guide me to whatever is next. Besides being invited on the trip I feel that we all can be instruments of peace and reconciliation in this world, and that’s exactly what I want to be. I hope that this trip will make people aware of China’s and our own personal influences on the state of things in Darfur and in the rest of world. And then by being made aware we will be able to act boldly and peacefully to see that China, and all nations and peoples of power, will use their influence to bring about peace and reconciliation rather than division and genocide.

Deng Jongkuc

“My name is Deng A. Jongkuc and I came to the United States from Southern Sudan as a refugee. I am a student at San Jose State University majoring in Health Science with a concentration in Health Services Administration. I am graduating in the spring of 2008 and I have been accepted at Touro University graduate school for Public Health. I am proud to be the first person in my extended family to graduate from college. I left Sudan in 1987 when I was five or six year old and walked to Ethiopia for refuge in 1987 and then to a Kenya refugee camp in 1992. This was due to the civil war which claimed more than two million lives, including many from my family and my village. I am part of the group known as The Lost Boys of Sudan. I returned to Sudan in 2005 for the first time in 18 years. The war had destroyed the health care system and people are dying from preventable diseases such cholera, amoebic dysentery, and malaria. Health centers were abandoned during the war and are completely out of use. Children go to schools under trees and have no school supplies. This tragic situation inspires me to be of change in Sudan, therefore I have initiated small projects to help villages in Sudan. Last year I delivered a grinding machine to my village so that young girls who spend most of their time grinding grain for their families have time to go to school. I am also raising funds and collecting medical supplies to be ship to the village clinics in Sudan. My fellow students and professors at San Jose State University have helped me raise funds for these projects. I also do presentations at schools, churches, rotary club, and other social gatherings. My long term goal is to help underserved population in the villages in Southern Sudan to have access to basic primary health care services, promote disease prevention through education, community advocacy, good nutrition, health screening, child immunization, good sanitation, and clean drinking water. These are my promises to my village and the rest of Southern Sudan. My short term goal is to gain experience in the field of community health and disease prevention so that I will be more productive once I return to Sudan.”

Brandon Tatum

Brandon Tatum – joins us in DC “My name is Brandon Tatum and I’m from San Clemente California. I heard about the trip from Liz just after I read What is the What by David Eggers and, consequently, was extremely interested in your efforts to raise awareness regarding Sudan, particularly Darfur and its interactions with China.”

Mamer Kuer Ajak

“My name is Mamer Kuer Ajak. I am a Sudanese Lost Boy and I work for Humanity United as a program Assistant. I served as an intern on Capitol Hill in the office of US Senator, Sam Brownback and helped with the passing of Darfur genocide legislation. I am also the secretary of Coalition of Willing, an organization started in 2005 by Lost Boys of Sudan to help build schools in Southern Sudan. I’m participating in the caravan to highlight the prolonged human suffering in Sudan with the hope that our voices of conscience will rise to the challenge now.”

Ashis Brahma

“Hello I am Ashis Brahma Indian Dutch physician working in Asia and Africa since 1999. Working in environments where injustice rules extreme is where I flourish. It is there (in refugee camps) where you see the resilience, humor and dignity of humanity. The people in Sudan have been going through violence, exploitation and genocide for the last 19 years at least. The last group to suffer are the Darfurians. China is helping the Sudanese regime by exchanging oil for weapons and by blocking resolutions in the Security Council of the United Nations. This relationship needs to be highlighted.”

Tiffany Wheeler

I am Tiffany Wheeler from the Stop Genocide Now team and STAND chapter. I was born and raised in Idaho where I am finishing my last year at the university and a few hours away from being a private pilot. I am on this trip because we are months away from the Olympic games and there has been a funded genocide taking place for 5 years that our country may not be aware of, or taking a stand against….