On a very recent article by CNN, president of Sudan al-Bashir is quoted as saying that less than 10,000 people have died and less than 500,000 have been displaced by the five-year crisis in the region of Darfur. Reading this, it makes me want to burst out laughing, but what stops me is knowing that, […]
Author: Gabriel
Gabriel co-founded Stop Genocide Now in 2005, which gave birth to i-ACT in 2009.
He became involved in the situation in Darfur out of a sense of personal responsibility. He believes the power of community and compassion, combined with personal empowerment, can bring about meaningful change.
On-the-ground sources tell us that thousands of newly displaced people have been fleeing the destruction of their villages in Darfur and are trying to make it in to the also unstable and dangerous Chad side of the border. Attacks come from air and ground, with bombs falling from the sky and dozens of trucks riding […]
Hi friends and familia: This is just a short note to let you know we are back home. I always felt connected to home and to safety thanks to all of your support in messages, prayers, thoughts, and actions. I feel lucky and privileged to have a huge, loving community around me. You are very […]
5 February 2008 According to plans, I would have been home three days ago. I know that I must have sounded redundant and boring when telling my three travel partners that many time, if not always, things just do not go as planed in Chad. This journey has taken this notion to the extreme. Clichés […]
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Attention
Before leaving California to embark on this journey (and that’s the word that most fits for my trips out to the refugee camps–journey), I told others on the on-the-ground team that it would be a life-changing experience. I could never have thought it would reach this level of gut, mind, heart, and soul shaking that […]
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Spending the night in N’D
Hello Friends y Familia: We have not made it out of Chad, but we are in much safer place than the hotel, which was close to being in the middle of the fighting. As stated before, French military personnel extracted us from the hotel and brought us to their military base. It is well protected […]
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Out of the hotel!
We have been evacuated from the hotel. French military came in a convoy of approximately ten armed personnel carriers to evacuate all foreigners from our home for the last five days. Yesterday and today were packed with a little too much excitement. It started with hearing fighting to being in the middle of fighting and […]
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Smiling in the kitchen.
There are now many children here in the kitchen area. This morning, local Chadian women came to the hotel with their kids. They are beautiful, happy kids. They are patient! They eat whatever the hotel staff brings them, and they receive it with a smile. My wife, Zahara, tells me that my little Gabo started […]
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Before the light.
I walked around the kitchen area of the hotel, and the Chadian hotel staff that spent the night here (which is all that were here yesterday, since they cannot go home because of the dangers of the street) is waking up. They seem in such a good mood. Two of them come up to me […]
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Loving your comments.
Hello everyone: A few times this long night, I have been stopping to read all of your comments. I truly feel a part of a large, loving community that has come together to try and do something for the displaced people of Darfur. We, here at the hotel, are so lucky that, in helping bring […]