Save Darfur

Www.savedarfur.org

If you want to help, go there.
It's a great site that allows you as one person to make a difference in this big problem. You can also do group stuff. Theres so much to do, and kids can make a huge impact on it all.

Katie Schettler

This is from the SaveDarfur.org website.

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic groups from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa (notes about our use of ethnic terminology).

The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as genocide. António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.” The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.

With much international pressure, the Darfur Peace Agreement was brokered in May 2006 between the government of Sudan and one faction of Darfur rebels. However, deadlines have been ignored and the violence has escalated, with in-fighting among the various rebel groups and factions dramatically increasing and adding a new layer of complexity to the conflict. This violence has made it dangerous, if not impossible, for most of the millions of displaced persons to return to their homes. Humanitarian aid agencies face growing obstacles to bringing widespread relief. In August 2006, the UN's top humanitarian official Jan Egeland stated that the situation in Darfur is "going from real bad to catastrophic." Indeed, the violence in Darfur rages on with government-backed militias still attacking civilian populations with impunity.

On July 30, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed. This same demand is also an important part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May of 2006. On August 31, 2006, the Security Council took the further step of authorizing a strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur by passing resolution 1706. Despite these actions, the Janjaweed are still active and free to commit the same genocidal crimes against civilians in Darfur with the aid of the Sudanese government.

International experts agree that the United Nations Security Council must deploy a peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians immediately. Until it arrives, the under-funded and overwhelmed African Union monitoring mission must be bolstered. And governments and international institutions must provide and ensure access to sufficient humanitarian aid for those in need.

Well...Does anyone atleast have an opinion on what's going on over there?

Darfur region is located in the western part of the Sudan. It is bordered by Libya in the North, Chad in the West and the Central African Republic in the South West. Historically, North Darfur and parts of West and South Darfur have suffered recurrent droughts. Crop yields have remained low and unpredictable due to erratic rainfall, pest infestation and the lack of agricultural inputs. The livestock has also dwindled due to pasture and water scarcity. The local labor force has continued to migrate in search of employment leaving behind children, women and the elderly. A combination of these factors over several years has systematically eroded the coping capacities of communities.

Information from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/darfur.htm

To get a good look at what's going on over there go to

www.youtube.com

in the search bar type "Save Darfur"

Look at the video that has a song by Mary J. Blige and U2 or something like that. It's has good pictures.. If you're easily disturbed and offended don't go.

I'll go, Darfur's interesting. I think it's discovery channel that had a show on it, but I'll check it out, sure.

P.S I got a account on youtube. I'm ArachnoNinja, here's my channels web address.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ArachnoNinja

Awesome, thanks!

Umm, i don't have an account, well i probably do but i don't recall making one...haha

But you should help spread the word about Darfur, it'd be so greatly appreciated!

Will do, I have plenty of friends, I'll put a bulliten out for them to spread to their friends, peace.

I just set up a penny war in my school to help out with Darfur. What have you done?

A penny war is usually done throughout schools. The way i'm doing it, is i'm setting up 1 gallon milk/water jugs in every homeroom. That homeroom wants to bring in any pennies or dollar bills and they'll get points for it, like 1 point a penny and 100 for a dollar or 500 for 5, but for nickles, dimes, all the silver stuff, that deducts points, so you want to put that money in someone elses homeroom jug. Someone will collect them every night and count up the points ((and of course money)) and usually the homeroom that wins gets some sort of pizza party, or breakfasty foods.

Ahhh we had to dgo to that website for school!

The Unity Club at my school sold pizza to help raise money for Darfur. I think that it was $1-$2 a slice, some people thought that it was to much (which it wasn't), but a majority of the people bought from us every time we sold it. I wish that I could remember how much we made though. ^.^

Word.

We have stuff like that at are school too. We did it last year to raise money for Darfur and are homr room one ice cream!!

Yahh, i'm doing that for the winning homeroom. And the teacher gets 50 dollars, how nice. lol

It's been 2 days, and theres an estimate of around 146 or 7 dollars so far. It's pretty good for a 300 person school. haha