I was given a tshirt almost a year and half ago that reminds me that my hope for a better world, and the love and energy I have to give towards making the change requires me to ACT. At times I feel like I have done all that I can, but am reminded by the voices of the refugees that I have not done nearly enough, because they are still unable to return to a safe and peaceful home. We cannot give up and we cannot all silent, we must continue to act:

1. Spread the “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” video! Throw it on your facebook page, twitter it, help it go viral and expose the “New People, Same Results” actions that the Obama administration is taking. You can also send it the White House via email, twitter, or facebook! Or get creative, post it on one of the many i-Reporter news sites!
2. Call Special Envoy Scott Gration at 202-647-4531 and ask him to head in the right direction using both carrots and sticks for Sudan.
3. Fill in your own action, and send us an e-mail at i-actinfo[at]stopgenocidenow.org with what you did!

“Humanity Before Politics” was one of the first moving i-ACT statements that caught my eye when I looked at a picture of a group of Darfuri boys wearing t-shirts with the slogan. Gabriel later told me how fun it was to watch them play basketball that day the picture was taken. Basketball in a refugee camp in Chad? This wasn’t something I would think of before when I pictured the conflict in Darfur in my mind. i-ACT help me see the conflict in Darfur from a refugees’ perspective. I realized that refugees are not just pictures on newspaper articles, faces lost in a sea of information, they are real mothers, fathers, families, kids with heart-warming smiles, giggles, who laugh, cry, and feel joy just like our children do. They are proud of their cultural, and ethnic, identities. They deserve freedom from persecution and opression. They love, they value education, they are human beings, with human faults, weaknesses, strengths, and self -worth. “They” are us.

When I was first introduced to Darfur Fast for Life by my mother, I simply wanted to try a fast in order to feel, for a few days, how the refugees felt. However, the new perspective that my fasting experience gave me led me to get involved. I blogged about my fast, I reached out and asked how I can get involved, and I heard back from the organizers. It was personal to them too. Gabriel Stauring added me to the core list and took on small tasks I could do from Ottawa in order to support the 8th i-ACT trip to Chad. And now that the team is back, I am building on the friendship and mutual understanding I have built with Garbiel, Katie-Jay, Ian, Eric, Alysha, and the rest of the i-ACT team. With their approval, I will be hosting i-ACT 8 video screenings in the local community, and getting people here in Ottawa involved in solutions to the crisis Darfuri refugees are facing.

One aspect of this local work is that my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Mohammed Baobaid, founder of the Muslim Family Safety Project in London, Ontario, will help me gather information on what can be done to address violence against women and family violence in refugee lives. This is only a start, but each of us can become an important part in helping people affected by the conflict in Darfur re-build their lives. Being involved with i-ACT has helped me re-prioritize my life and commit myself to social-awareness related work, as well as helped me give more time to my son. Seeing life through the eyes of Adam, Bilal, Selma, and many more in the camps has done more for me than I could have ever imagined, now the question is: What can I do for them? I sincerely hope that my continued volunteer work with Interactive Activism will help me answer that question.

Nicole, i-ACT team member

It feels cool to hear our team’s time out here in Eastern Chad called a “mission.”  They ask, “How long is your mission?”  “Where is your mission going?”  I like to think that our mission never ends.  When we get back to the US, our mission continues and, for the most part, becomes even more difficult.

As cliche as it might sound, I tell our team, and I repeat it as often as I can and as often as I see needed, “mission first, mission first!”  We want to have our actions be directed by what will have a more immediate and positive and long-lasting impact on the people on whose behalf we are working for, the civilian population of Darfur.

Growing as an organization is not our mission.  On the contrary, it makes sense for us to stay light, flexible, and adaptable, so that we can act immediately based on what is happening or, sometimes even better, on what we see coming around the corner.  We take risks.  We allow ourselves to think outside of the box.  We many times go outside of our comfort zone.  We do make mistakes.

There are quite a few groups that exist today solely because of Darfur, including our little team.  For these advocacy or activists groups, I personally believe that it is our responsibility to be mission first, mission second, mission next, and mission always.  We owe it to the people that are right now sitting in the middle of the desert.  We owe it to ourselves and to our own children.

Paz,
G

The Oregon Community has been quiet; however, strategic and present.  There are many independent groups working, still very much committed to the vast mission of bringing about awareness and education for Darfur.  As a community, we have all had the privilege of coming together through Darfur Fast for Life; this gave us the opportunity to join hundreds of others around the world to become part of the international movement of change for Darfur.  Since our coming together and working collaboratively, the Oregon community has been able to achieve a small amount of progress, through round table discussions, house meetings, and preparations for many local events. Our ability to consistently bring the message has allowed those that believed the cause was too big and too much to believe in their own ability to stand and ACT.  With our events come a modest amount of press and new people championing our cause.  We have seen how well a few voices coming together can yell loudly and have a great impact.  Our community here in Oregon has been working tirelessly to bring all of our thoughts and ideas together to talk, plan, yell, walk, and most recently drink martini’s for Darfur. With every event or meeting the Oregon community is able to connect not only together for a common cause, but also with those working so incredibly hard internationally; most important our work brings us closer to the amazingly strong and courageous people of Darfur.

Alysha Atma

i-ACT/SGN Regional Coordinator

What: Darfur Rally

*Support the International Criminal Court (ICC)

*Express the Dire Need for Humanitarian Assistance

*Protect the Women and Children of Darfur

*A panel discussion/dialogue/activist networking event will follow the rally.

When: Thursday, August 13, 2009, 12:30-4:00 pm

Where: Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, New York City
47th Street and First Avenue
near United Nations visitors’ entrance

Please come to stand with Darfuris, Sudanese, Americans, Africans, Europeans, Canadians, Asians and Middle-Easterners, and human rights activists to support the survivors and those still in grave danger in Darfur. Ask to bring Justice by supporting the ICC to arrest Al-bashir and all suspects in Sudan. Support re-entry of humanitarian organizations, and protect the women and children of Darfur. Send peace keepers to save the lives of innocent now!!

Who: Organized and supported by: Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Inc. (DRP) in cooperation with Afrikan Poetry Theatre, Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, Darfur Human Rights, Inc., Darfur Peoples Association, Friends of Darfur, Fur Cultural Revival, National Religious Leaders of African Ancestry,
Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), Women in the Diaspora

I met Adam and Abdal at Obama School in Camp Djabal. We (the i-ACT team) were going over the logistics of a live video broadcast that we would do from the school later in the day. They came up to me, each holding a piece of folded paper. They told me that they had letters that they had written to President Obama that they wanted to show me. I asked them to read me the letters and I promised them that I would put it on the internet for people around the world to see. Please watch and listen to what Adam and Abdal are saying.

— Eric

Note: At the end of the video Abdal talks about celebrations at the Ocampo School. There is a school in Camp Djabal that has been named for Luis Moreno Ocampo - the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)