World Refugee Day (WRD) is a time of celebration. To honor the survivors who were forced fled their homes and sought refuge and safety from violence. To recognize them as part of us. WRD is also a time to reflect on the root causes of mass atrocities and solutions to bring those who were forced to run back home. It should be a day of action, as action is the very best way to honor and celebrate the sorrows and triumphs of humanity by connecting with humanity in the toughest of times.

On Saturday June 20, 2009, World Refugee Day will be celebrated around the world in internally displaced person’s camps and refugee camps throughout the world. This year’s theme is Real People, Real Needs. We ask you can be part of this day and to bring celebration and action into you life.

ACTIONS:

1. Participate in a live web streaming from Chad refugee camps. Follow our team as they capture the daily life and special WRD events. Ask questions via the live chat, and spread the word via your online social networks.

2. In solidarity with and in honor of the theme, Real People, Real Needs, fast from midnight to midnight for WRD - join here.

3. During the World Refugee Day web streaming, invite a few friends and family to your home to share in the experience. The live streaming and chat offer the opportunity for you to actively deepen the relationship between your community and refugees. Making our very large world personal is part of the long term solution that can create peace, justice and equality.

World Refugee Day Flyer - Download and Share!

Dear Friends and Family,

Tomorrow I board an Air France flight to Paris, then N’Djamena, and within a few days will reach Camp Djabal. I feel rather calm in our preparations for this trip, although I may be leaving many things unfinished. I think mostly I am simply beginning to protect myself because I know this trip will be an emotional one for me. I didn’t quite give myself enough time to gain my strength back from i-ACT7, so my heart is already vulnerable. Or maybe I am fully feeling, at a deeper new level, what it feels like to be part of a community that suffers each and every day. I consider my friends in the camp part of my growing community and want them to be part of yours also.

On this trip I will be with Gabriel and two team members, Eric and Ian, who will be experiencing i-ACT and the strong embrace of this population for the first time. Please follow our journey and be part of i-ACT. Our collective action can save lives. I believe in humanity and I believe in peace. I don’t think we can achieve it without you.

If you are part of a group or community, please consider forwarding this note or the short paragraph at the bottom of this email. If you have blog or website please consider adding this button to a side bar or a blog post.

We will also be web-casting from the camps on World Refugee Day, Saturday June 20th. Stay tuned to our website for more information and the web address so you can tune in. We encourage you to be part of this by hosting a viewing party either of these days. Serve refugee rations or ask your guests to participate in Darfur Fast for Life.

paz, ktj

To send out to your community or post:

Beginning on June 15th, i-ACT (interactive-activism) will connect you with Darfur refugees through the web for ten consecutive days. Each day delve deeper into the lives of this community by watching videos, viewing photos, reading and commenting on blog posting and taking action to bring peace and justice to Darfur. Being part of i-ACT allows you to develop a personal relationship with Darfuris and inspires us all to continue acting for each individual who has survived the horrors of Darfur. i-ACT will bring you innovative and interactive live programming for World Refugee Day on June 20th. Join us, be i-ACT.

Gabriel, Katie-Jay and Yuen-Lin have safely arrived in Chad! Their flight was delayed leaving Los Angeles, which made their transit in Paris very ‘exhilirating’. Their bags haven’t arrived yet though, but they will continue making preparations to head out to camps while they are there.

 Read more thoughts from Gabriel here.

March 23rd through April 1, 2009!

For 10 consecutive days, i-ACT will connect you with the faces and lives of Darfur refugees who escaped, for now, genocide in their homeland.

Watch videos and view photos from Darfur refugee camps; read journal entries and add your comments; take action daily that will change the way the world responds to genocide. We cannot expect our leaders to STAND UP if we are sitting down.

The violence and insecurity in and around Darfur has escalated since the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President al-Bashir. Thirteen international and three Sudanese aid groups providing life saving services have been expelled from Darfur, leaving 4.7 million without help. Peacekeepers were ambushed and injured yesterday in the region. The Government of Sudan is seizing food, vehicles, files (names and locations) and more from aid organizations. Many believer that Darfuris will begin to cross the border with Chad, seeking help.

i-ACT will take you to the people to hear what they say about Justice and peace. For you to see and understand the situation on the ground. Each day there will be a daily action item and, of course, we will be doing the i-ACTivist Challenge once again! The swiftness of our actions needs to match the urgency on the ground.

1. Fliers to hand out will be coming soon!

2. Take your first action by attending our Facebook Event: i-ACT and asking others to join.

3. Link our site to yours - ADD this button

4. Send this short blurb to your group - include it in your daily or weekly briefing!
For 10 consecutive days, i-ACT (interactive-activism) connects you with the faces and lives of Darfur refugees who escaped, for now, genocide in their homeland. Watch videos from the field team; read journal entries and add your comments; take action daily that will change the way the world responds to genocide. The violence and insecurity in and around Darfur has escalated since the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President al-Bashir. Thirteen aid groups providing life saving services have been expelled from Darfur, leaving 4.7 million without help. Visit Stop Genocide Now i-ACT (www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7) to join the community, learn what Darfuris are saying about the ICC and justice and personally connect with a child who needs your voice and action.

5. **Please also consider donating towards new technology to make this i-ACT happen. We hate asking for money, but once again we are heading to the region on a tight budget. We have used the same digital cameras since our first i-ACT trip in 2005, and our video cameras from 2008 are at their end. Every bit would help us. Thank you.

Almost a year ago, Beijing began to spread their 2008 Olympics motto: One World, One Dream. Shortly thereafter, a movement began to pressure Sudan’s largest foreign oil investor and UNSC ally, China. Now with the games less then two weeks away, our community needs to turn up the heat, and demand that the Chinese government, and all our global leaders, ensure that our world, and our dreams, represent and include those of Darfur.What are the dreams of the Darfuris whose lives have been filled with daily horrors, challenges and obstacles to their dreams? You have heard it before through past i-ACTs – they want peace and protection in order to ensure a safe passage home, and a chance to rebuild their lives. They want justice and a future.

As the i-ACT team prepares to bring our community the voices and stories of Darfur from refugee camps, where they have been trapped and forgotten by our leaders, athletes are moving into the Beijing Olympic Village. As NBC brings you thousands of hours of coverage of Olympic games, and athlete profiles about realizing dreams of the Gold, i-ACT will bring you the voices of those who have fled their homes under flames, violence, and hatred.

As the world celebrates humanity and the global community through competition and sportsmanship, people in Darfu r and refugee camps in Chad are starving and struggling to survive day-to-day.

Now more than ever, THEY NEED YOU to listen to their voices, look into their eyes and tell our leaders, China, NBC and your local community their stories. People are nervous that the recent ICC evidence brought forth by Moreno-Ocampo threatens the prospect for peace. But what peace has their been for Darfuri’s or for UNAMID troops? Now more than ever, with the world’s attention on humanity and global brotherhood, we need to share with others why Darfuri’s deserve to be part of One World, One Dream.

Starting August 1^st, i-ACT will bring you exclusive footage from the other Olympics, the other Dreams. Each day we will highlight a Darfur athlete. I am asking you to share this athlete’s profile with others. During the opening ceremony of the Olympics on August 8^th, Switch Over to Darfur will launch their own Olympics show through the 15^th. Please tune in and spread out, the stories you hear for these two weeks – the power to unite the world lies in your ability to take action on behalf of the innocent civilians of Darfur.

I Challenge You to Participate in the i-ACT Challenge.

HUMANITY BEFORE POLITICS.

Help us spread the word about our upcoming i-ACT by displaying our dynamic banners on your website. Banners come in 2 sizes, and will be updated daily with the latest frame captures from our new videos.

Copy and paste the code above the banner you’d like and you’re all set!

Note: Please do not store the following images on your server as they will be updated each day during i-ACT.

Option 1

   <a href="http://stopgenocidenow.org/iact-currentday.php?utm_source=distribution&utm_medium=banner-250&utm_campaign=iact6">
     <img src="http://stopgenocidenow.org/material/banners/250x150horiz.png"/>
   </a>

Option 2

   <a href="http://stopgenocidenow.org/iact-currentday.php?utm_source=distribution&utm_medium=banner-150&utm_campaign=iact6">
     <img src="http://stopgenocidenow.org/material/banners/150x120horiz.png" />
   </a>

Edit: Originally sent to our mailing list on 16 June, 2008.

Hello Friends and Familia:

We are starting our second week in Chad, and for the first time in five trips we might not be able to visit a refugee camp. When we left camp Kounoungo this past January, our friend Yakoub told us that the people in his camp felt motivated by our trips and felt proud that we continued to come back. They feel connected to not just us, but to the communities that support them in the US and other countries.

Yakoub and other refugees are so grateful for the aid they receive to keep them alive, but they regain hope and energy when they hear the messages, see the faces, and learn the names of those that are doing selfless work every day to bring peace to Darfur. That “building of community” across continents is priceless. The i-ACT team remains committed to this.

We are in Abeche, in Eastern Chad, unable to move because of heavy fighting in the area. We will continue to report on the situation and how it affects aid work and the lives of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people. We will post video, when there is something visually worth posting. Otherwise, we will continue with journals, reports, and answering any comments and questions that you post on our blog. Click here to read our reports from Abeche.

Thank you for staying involved and for being one of those faces and names that Yakoub says he feels proud to know.

Paz,
Gabriel
for Katie-Jay, Colin, and Scott,
i-ACT Team in Abeche, Chad.

I’ve told you “we’re going back” three times in the past, but this one is a little different. The last time we left Chad after our visits to the refugee camps in the east, we left on a French military plane, being evacuated in the middle of an all out coup attempt that left an already unstable country and region in even worse conditions.

Soon after, the Sudanese government attacked Darfuri villages, displacing tens of thousands of more civilians. This was in February 2008. Of the over 13,000 that reached the border between Chad and Darfur, 8,000 are still sitting in the desert, waiting to be transferred to camp Mile, according to UNHCR. The insecurity has stopped the transfers indefinitely.

Services have been reduced and interrupted at almost all of the camps in Chad. Chadian security officers working at the camps have been attacked and killed, and humanitarian aid workers have been targets. Our friends in the camps, mostly women and children, continue to live the life of a refugee—but the life of a refugee in grave danger.

We are returning after ourselves having been in some danger. That also makes it different. Our experience at the hotel in N’Djamena had an effect on Katie-Jay and I and on all the people around us. We are not taking this lightly. We will take all precautions possible and will make decision based on the best information from experts on the ground.

We want to continue putting a face on the numbers and allowing the voice of the victims to be heard. The innocent civilians of Darfur need immediate protection, and sovereignty cannot be an excuse for inaction from the entire world.

Join us for i-ACT, staring June 10th and for twelve consecutive days of webcasts, interactive blog, and opportunities for action. Scott Warren, the outgoing National Director of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and Colin O’Brien, who served as the National High School Outreach Coordinator for STAND, will be going with us on the journey. Students have been the leaders of the Darfur movement, and we are looking for students and their communities to increase the heat and raise the noise this summer to bring peace to Darfur.

Paz,
Gabriel

The situation on the ground is getting worse. They are still in the capital, barred from leaving the hotel. The streets are empty, and the fighting is getting closer and closer. Read Google News for all the latest news stories from Chad. Katie-Jay was also interviewed by the BBC. Gabriel is still uploading reports from the ground, you can find them all here. Here’s the latest video from Gabriel:

It was a busy day yesterday! Gabriel, Connie and Yuen-Lin arrived home safely in time to watch i-ACT featured on San Francisco’s local ABC news last night (video and news article), as well had their question to the candidates answered in the CNN/YouTube presidential debate!

Please read article, by John Morlino: President Bush: Imagine Yourself as a Man in Darfur
Click here to read more »

目前种族灭绝统计数字:

• 死亡人数: 自2003年2月以来, 已超过40万人
• 死亡率: 每一天500人死亡, 每个月1万5千人死亡
• 流离失所者:　超过２５０万人

Gabriel, Connie and Yuen-Lin ask the American presidential candidates what they plan to do for Darfur.

• We use technology to reject the standard excuse of inaction - ignorance
• We debunk the myth that ordinary people cannot stop genocide
• We replace statistics with names, faces and stories

The age of bystanders should long have passed - we have entered an age of knowledge which empowers us to protect. Join us as an upstander. Become an i-ACTivist.