Stop Genocide Now
N’Djamena, 3:20am (N’D Time) It’s too late to sleep now, so I’ll write. We need to be at the airport before 6am, and there’s still packing to do. We have to figure out what is essential and what can stay, if it needs to. They have a weight limit that is considerably less than Air […]
There is an amazing full moon outside. We’re in a small village in north-eastern Chad, close to the Darfur border. It is very cold here, and it is windy, and there is sand everywhere. As I stepped off of the plane and in to this, I thought about the children in the camps that are […]
It’s not enough. I’ve heard that short sentence on both of my trips to these refugee camps on the Chad-Darfur border. There is some sense of stability in the camps, thanks to the heroic efforts by UNHCR, the WFP, and their partner NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations). They get a minimum ration of calories; they get […]
Hello from Eastern Chad! Yes, we finally made it. After a tense morning hoping to get on a plane that was full to capacity with all of our equipment and food which was over the weight limit, we at last flew to Abeche. There were seats for Gabriel, Ali and me! We were all ecstatic […]
Still in N’Djamena, We are still waiting to get on a plane to Abeche and out to the camps. It’s been a busy day with the press briefing and conference with the UN High Commissioner, Guterres. Gabriel and I were there with Reuters and Al Jazeera, among other well know publications. I was very proud […]
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 […]
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 […]
10:04pm More on security Yesterday, Chris and I briefed UNHCR about our trip, focusing mostly on security issues refugees and others shared with us. They told us that security is a complex issue, with politics (refugee leadership politics, local politics, and cross-border politics) having a great impact on it. My point was, and is, that […]
7:56 PM Commenting back Dear Shelley (MSMC): You sent this comment a while back, Hello from MSMC! I was finally able to upload the videos that I could not before. It was a much speedier proccess! I am in awe. The footage is incredible. My heart goes out to the thousands of children at each […]
I’ll be right back! 5:19 pm I was going to start writing, but I just looked outside right now, and it is getting dark. I think I should go take a bath, since every day we come back bathed in sand; there is just no way around it. It is sandy and windy! Today we […]