Human Rights Watch

The Human Rights Watch is another organization that is dedicated to poverty-stricken countries worldwide.

“Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.
We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice.
We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.”

There is a section that goes into more detail to describe who what where when why and how they help.

They have many programs in Africa including dedicated efforts to Darfur. The Africa home page has a list of briefing papers and publications that discuss stories about Africa. Many are on Darfur.

The actual “Darfur in Crisis” page is very informative. It’s made up of current stories specifically about Darfur. There are also a list of links along the side of the page including a background section with a map and a Q & A page, how you can help and recent reports from the area.

The Q & A section is very informative and covers a lot of the basic questions people may have about Darfur.

There is also a part about what you can do in Darfur. Well worth checking out. Most of the things do not involve donating money but helping to take action. There are detailed descriptions for all of the easy steps listed below:

“Inform yourself about Darfur
Write to your local newspaper
Hold a video screening
Write to the Members of the UN Security Council (addresses below)”

There are many issues that they encourage you to discus in your letter to the UN.
There is also the ability to see if you were living in the United Kingdom what you could do to help.

Genocide Intervention Network article

For today I want to talk about a specific area on the genocide intervention network website. First off I would like to say that immediately after I posted Ann Curry’s recommended links, they immediately posted a comment letting me know that they’d be willing to answer any questions I had.

There is so much information offered through the website. I am going to try to come back to it and discuss more of the attributes that make this such an informative and helpful source on Darfur.

Today I wanted to discuss an article I immediately linked to after viewing the home page. The article is about Americans demanding action in Darfur. I thought this would be a good focus for the day’s blog because I have been so negative throughout my blog about America in general not being involved.

The first paragraph is as follows:
“According to a December Genocide Intervention Network poll, a majority of Americans now see ending genocide as a high foreign policy priority. Despite the predominance of Iraq and terrorism in US media and foreign policy discussions, we now have proof that strong majorities feel that the United States should take action to bring about peace in Darfur, and favor doing so in cooperation with the international community.”

I thought that summed it up the point of the article.

There is then a link to another page that discusses the poll results. The most impressive statistic I thought was that 62% of Americans believe that Darfur should be a priority. If you think about it in numbers, that’s almost two times our president’s approval rating.

Also, 80% of Americans, or 4 out of 5, feel that educating students on genocide is mandatory.

These results are very impressive and I urge anyone who takes the time to read this to get all the statistical data off the poll results link mentioned above. Hopefully the numbers can soon mean more than just percentages and have more and more voices to speak them to the nation and the world.

Doctors Without Borders

Doctors without borders is another one of Ann Curry’s suggested links. Again, like many of the other organizations she has linked to, this is a very large organization that works elsewhere, but also in Sudan. Doctors without borders is “an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries.”

Founded in 1971, the organization has only grown. They get a lot of attention from the press and participate in many public events as to bring attention and funds to their cause. Thousands of workers are assisting in countries of need.

The “About Us” page goes into more depth about how they run their program financially and in the field.

Throughout the website there are many links and many news updates as to what’s happening around the world and also what their organization is doing to help.



There is a list (picture to the left) in which anyone can go to a specific country doctors without borders is assisting in and see the kind of work being done there. Unlike the other websites however, there was also an option to “select an issue,” i.e. AIDS/HIV.

The page for Sudan had recent news and also discussed what was happening in the different areas of Darfur. They called their work there “of the most significant operations in the world for (doctors without borders)”



They discuss the decrease in international aide to the area. In Northern Darfur there has been a tremendous decrease in security and the availability to treat health issues, including the large amount of Malaria cases, is becoming more and more impossible.

The case is similar in Western Darfur. As we have discussed, the bordering area of Chad is a treacherous place to be. This page discusses the lack of medical attention and aid from other organizations but also discusses what their organization is trying to do to help.

They also discuss the work they are doing in Southern Darfur, especially in Kalma, the largest city of displaced persons, around 90,000.

This article really brought my attention to the medial care we are so easily offered and I think take for granted. While I don’t agree with the current policy of health care in the United States, I personally can’t complain. My father, a doctor, has always been able to provide us with the best of the best health care plans. I know this is not the case for all in the US, but from my point of view, we are pretty damn lucky. How many times have you heard of someone in the US having Malaria? And if someone does it’s on the national news as such a rarity. The vaccinations we have today are amazing, but when was the last time you woke up and said to yourself, “I am so glad I was vaccinated as a child!” I personally have never done it. With everything else the people of Darfur have to worry about, it saddens me even more so to find yet another thing they have to worry about that we take advantage of every day.

Ann Curry interviews with al-Bashir

As I said yesterday, I wanted to look more into the linked articles Ann Curry did. They are actually links to two very impressive interviews she did with president al-Bashir. This web page has two videos and a written transcript of the first video. I found them to be very VERY insightful.

The first video gives a good introduction with the statistics of the murdered and displaced victims of Darfur and also lets us know that this is the first television interview done in three years with a western journalist. Way to go Curry!

After watching this video, I also feel a little guilty about being so hard on the US and their action in Darfur. Who I really should have been criticizing is the president. I found his statements horrifying and hope to God we never have a president that ignorant to what is occurring in his country. In the first video he completely denied that the atrocities that have been reporter on were in fact true. During a good portion of the interview, he related the Darfur crisis to what happened in Iraq and blamed the US for wanting to interfere for the sake of oil. (Probably not a bad accusation seeing as, in my opinion, we’ve done that before) However, I think that in this situation that comment is completely irrelevant. I believe that the US and the UN are interfering for the sake of stopping crimes against humanity.

Rather than me explaining it, here is a clip of exact words that were spoken:
“Ann Curry: Mr. President, I have this map from the U.S. Department of State that shows more than a thousand villages in the Darfur region — more than a thousand burned.
And the question is, how can this be done by Arab militias without the support of the Sudanese government? This is shocking.
Omar al-Bashir: What do you think about the picture that Colin Powell presented before the national security that confirmed and illustrated the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? What do you think about it?
Curry: You're saying this is not true?
Al-Bashir: This picture is the same fabrication and the same picture as the ones Colin Powell presented about Iraq.”

While I am not a fan of al-Bashir, I think that he makes a valid point in arguing that what Colin Powell demonstrated as locations of WMD was false so this map of burned Darfur villages is false too. While I don’t believe that is the case at all, I think that the situation in Iraq and the way our government has/is handling it has affected our credibility to other nations tremendously. This is a clear-cut example of how the war in Iraq has caused us and possibly will cause us problems down the road.

In the first video as well as the second video, the president claimed that 99% of rapes were fabrications. It is hard for me to find an ounce of respect for a man like that when there is blatant proof in the horrific stories his countries women and girls are telling.

After watching these two videos I found an even greater fondness for Ann Curry and the work she is doing. She is very lady-like, but at the same time, ballsy, for lack of a better word. She is not afraid to put big questions and her opinions on the table and she’s fighting to bring justice to the people of Darfur through the media. I admire her work and personality tremendously.

(the images to the right are pictures from the article and the interview videos)

Ann Curry, Terrorism, Sudan, and the US government

I found this MSNBC story to be very interesting. Clearly I like Ann Curry and the involved work she has done and is doing with the Darfur crisis. This is a behind-the scenes type interview in which she talks with Sudan president Omar al-Bashir and Andrew Nastios, U.S. special envoy to Sudan. Throughout the video she is in Khartoum, which is 500 miles from Darfur.

There is also a video on this page, which is basically the same as the article only a much more entertaining, presentation with some great photos. It’s also easier to understand. There is a short introduction in which we also learn that this is the fist interview the president of Sudan has done in years.



The article is a little foggy. However, what I get from it is that the US government is working with the Sudan government to get information about al-Queda members who are traveling to the Middle East from Sudan. I really liked how Curry approached the topic with the relation to what the US is doing with terrorism vs. what the US is doing in Sudan. Though it’s not put out there as strongly as I would have wanted.

The following is the short Q and A with Nastois.

“Curry: So they are providing information on al-Qaida to us?

Nastios: Yes.

Curry: And are we working with them?

Nastios: Yes.

Curry: Is that driving American policy in Sudan?

Nastios: Absolutely not.”


I think she’s making a good point with this, or attempting to anyway. I think she should give more detail to what exactly she means. Maybe it’s just because I don’t understand the article in depth enough, I don’t know.
Tensioons between the US and the Sudaneese government are still there. Which has been something the two governments haven’t been able to, quite literally, do anything about.

“But despite our intelligence relationship, U.S. officials tell NBC News that diplomatic efforts with President al-Bashir to end the Darfur crisis are not working. The United States is now planning stepped-up economic sanctions against Sudan.”

This paragraph seemed so vague to me and made me a little upset. What action are we exactly taking? And by planning do they mean they are getting around to it to take action some time next year? I think more answers from the US government are in order.

I will be discussing the two other story links in this blog throughout the week.

STAND podcast

As part of one of our journalism assignments, we had to record a podcast. I did my podcast as though it were a normal blog post, only me reading it. This was the first time I have recorded anything since my sister and I recorded a radio show on cassette of our favorite songs in the mid-nineties, so bare with my voice.

Anyway, I briefly discussed the STAND organization.

To here my podcast click HERE! : )

Christian Children's Fund

The Christian Children’s Fund is another one of Ann Curry’s suggested links. I found this site to be the least involved with Darfur. Infact, they do not specifically work in the Darfur region. But they do wok in Chad, the neighboring country that I have discussed.



The following is a description of what is CCF is doing in Chad:
“A CCF emergency response team, consisting of specialists in emergency response and child protection, traveled to Chad on August 1, 2004, to assess refugee needs in regards to quality of basic services, psychological well-being, protection concerns and desired support. The team addressed education, shelter and psychosocial issues in the four Chadian refugee camps (Iridimi, Toullum, Mille and Kounoungo) located along the Chad-Sudan border.
In response, 16 out of a total of 30 planned Child Centered Spaces have already been opened. These spaces provide a safe and stimulating environment with structured recreational and learning activities to approximately 1,600 children each day. CCF staff members have also mobilized 40 youth clubs for boys and girls in the four camps. Each club has up to 60 youth members who are encouraged to hold sports and cultural activities.”


There is also a brief history of what’s going on Chad. This information page also discusses that they are involved with UNICEF.



They are a fund that works with the children by stopping the poverty and the harsh conditions the face. The biggest opportunity to help in alignment with the CCF is the ability to sponsor a child from one of the regions they work in. Pictured below is the first step in the three-step process. You are also able to make general donations to the fund.

I also found an interesting link within the page for journalists. This sections, as stated, does the following:

“The team offers assistance to journalists researching current story ideas or breaking news affecting developing countries worldwide. We provide background information, photos and set up interviews with experts and specialists from the U.S. and developing countries. The team also provides resources needed for inquiries related to ongoing emergencies, natural disasters or current CCF national and international program development issues.”

Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is the next organization on Ann Curry’s links. This is the description in the “about” link of what Mercy Corps does:

“Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1 billion in assistance to people in 94 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,200 staff worldwide and reach nearly 13.5 million people in more than 40 countries.”

Seeing as Darfur over-qualifies for a disaster, a conflict, and consists of a majority of suffering persons, Mercy Corps is contributing to this crisis. The Darfur crisis has it’s own series (pictured below), based out of the Sudan section. This is an overview. Included there is a ”photo essay” that depicts life in Darfur in a very powerful way.



The following is a brief less detailed description of what Mercy Corps is doing in Darfur:

“Mercy Corps has been providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance - and protection - to displaced families for more than two years. We currently have nearly 200 veteran aid workers in Darfur, where they continue to help people meet their most basic needs. The agency's focus includes improved sanitation systems, clean water, distribution of relief items and building safe spaces where children can learn and play…
… One of the agency's responses has been to reduce the amount of firewood that women must collect to heat water and cook food. Mercy Corps is continuing to teach determined women how to construct and use fuel-efficient stoves that require about half the wood as a campfire would. This limits the amount of time women have to spend collecting wood outside the camp boundaries, where they are more vulnerable.”

The second part of these contributions was the most heart warming to me. As I continually am running into horror stories of women being raped, most frequently they are out collecting firewood when it happens. This seems like such an effective yet simple way of eliminating these horror stories from happening so frequently.



When clicking on “Sudan,” one of the many countries Mercy Corps is assisting in, you get an overview (pictured above) of the help being given there. I found this to be slightly similar to the site yesterday, but still each program has different focuses and concentrations. There are stories from the region not only focused on Darfur that are inspiring and heartbreaking. I especially liked this one about sports. It discusses a program established in southern Sudan that educates the youth about AIDS. The program is called Sports, Youth and Life. The article discusses Nike’s involvement in the program and also how you can help buy purchasing a “soccer kit” that benefits the program and the enrolled.

Like yesterday’s site, they also have a sanctioned out way of viewers to donate among many other links. The site also has links to stories, publications and a year in pictures section. In which some of the most devastating sights from the countries they are assisting are captured. The picture below is from Darfur.

Africare

I am finally going to start discussing Ann Curry’s links. I am going to give a brief over view as to what each other sites provide. Today’s website is Africare.

Africare does not specifically concentrate on Darfur; they are an organization that has been helping the general devastations to the African continent. They focus their attentions on strengthening and helping to maintain the supply of food, security, agriculture, and health, specifically HIV and AIDS.

Some pretty impressive statistics from the website follow:

“Africare now reaches families and communities in 25 countries in every major region of Sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to South Africa and from Chad to Mozambique.
Since its founding in 1970, Africare has delivered more than $590 million in assistance — over 2,000 projects — to 36 countries Africa-wide.”

Africare also has a special section and project dedicated to AIDS/HIV. This section gives an overview of what Africare is doing and in what areas. There is a map with highlighted countries that Africare has established projects fighting AIDS/HIV. There are also other links specifically within this section, including links to articles, success stories and history of the project.

The website also allows you to help donate. Not only that, but there are links to specific projects that you can help donate too. I really like this aspect of how they broke it down. The links, located with information about each program, read as follows:

“We invite you to explore the opportunities to help Africare meet the complex needs of the emerging nations of Africa. Here's how you can —
Combat AIDS
Reach out to Africa's children
Offer help where it is needed most
Join Africare as a Life Member
Become a Corporate Partner of Africare
Make a planned gift that will help for years to come
Attend the annual Africare Bishop Walker Dinner in Washington, D.C.”

Throughout the website there are also articles that discuss the progress that is being made.

This section gives statistical information about Sudan and the work being done by Africare there. This feature is available for all the countries Africare is doing work in.

Religious Aspect

I want to discuss some of the religious aspects that are involved in the Darfur crisis. I am pointing out this article from the Washington Post because it explains this very well. The article, entitled "5 truths about Darfur." It's very informative and clears up some of the confusion and speculations about the crisis.

The first truth is "nearly everyone is Muslim." (For more information about the Islam religion, visit this wikipedia site)

An excerpt from the Washington Post article follows:
"Darfur is home to some of Sudan's most devout Muslims, in a country where 65 percent of the population practices Islam, the official state religion.
A long-running but recently pacified war between Sudan's north and south did have religious undertones, with the Islamic Arab-dominated government fighting southern Christian and animist African rebels over political power, oil and, in part, religion.

"But it's totally different in Darfur," said Mathina Mydin, a Malaysian nurse who worked in a clinic on the outskirts of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. "As a Muslim myself, I wanted to bring the sides together under Islam. But I quickly realized this war had nothing to do with religion.""

Emily Wax, the reporter, also discusses her travels and seeing destroyed mosques. This last quote surprised me. I thought religion was an aspect of the war, but as Mathina Mydin says, it has nothing to do with it. This makes it even harder for me to understand the reasons for these atrocities to continue.

France

I am finally bringing attention to this article my aunt sent me a month ago now! This is a Boston Globe article that discusses a recent settlement between African nations in France about the crisis in Darfur.

This article was a little confusing for me. Sadly, I don’t understand politics all that way. For example, I had no idea that Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic were accusing each other for supporting rebels.

I am glad they had a meeting to make an end to this violence, but it seems a little sketchy and unrealistic, especially since now there hasn’t been much more news on it. Then again, there never is that much news on Darfur.

I did not like this sentence,

“France and other powers fear the Darfur violence is spilling over and could engulf the entire region.” I thought it was an ignorant statement because this is already started to happen.

However, I did like this statement by United Nations in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

“’I am very much disappointed by the decision of the Sudanese government,’ Ban said. ‘I urge again that the Sudanese government fully cooperates with the unanimous decision of the Human Rights Council’ to send a fact-finding team to Darfur.”

I agree with this statement, but I think action should be taken to enact it.

Washington Post

The Washington Post multimedia package professor Matson told me to look at broke my heart. It is by far the most informative package I’ve seen on the crisis. Though it is based on areas in Chad, outside of Darfur, it captures the atrocities at their worst.

I like this site because it is simple but very informative with 360 views of the camps that you can zoom in on to see the specific details. There are also three video packages from areas that are highlighted on the map. The sights and stories are horrific which, ironically, in my mind makes the footage great. The bottom also has links including one that gives you updated information. The pictures above are the ones that hurt me the most.

I liked the first video the best. I loved how there was no narrative; the pictures and the people’s stories told enough. I loved the singing in between by the children too. It amazed me how these people can still have so much passion and love for their country when these horrible things are going on. It makes me look at the U.S. a little differently.

The first woman in that first video talks about having to protect her children, and which ones she can. Can you imagine making that choice? And then living on without your husband in a trashy camp?

Seeing the next woman’s story literally made me cry. The woman in this story is clearly disturbed and ashamed to show her face. How she even lives from day to day amazes me and will have my praise for the rest of my life. She was held down by 11 men and raped by nine. She keeps repeating, “they raped me, they raped me.” And then proceeds to say, “it would have been better if they killed me.” How can any human being do that to someone? What kind of sick twisted people are in this world? And why why why aren’t we stopping it?!

The next woman in the video was struggling to save her baby. She has to feed him “animal food” and doesn’t know if he’ll live or not. How do you find the will to carry on? I don’t think I ever could.

Scenes like this upset me so greatly and I know I ask a lot of questions. I know they’re not going to be answered but I just wish more people would ask them. I get especially upset when I tell people about my blog for Darfur and they laugh or have no interest in it what so ever. How do we live with ourselves without doing something? To let people live in those conditions? I’m having a hard time doing so.

On a final note, in one of the other video’s they discuss how the U.S. government calls Darfur genocide. While Darfur isn’t receiving a significant amount of aide, these areas are hardly receiving any. If we call Darfur genocide, what do we call Chad?

SPRING BREAK! ....is over :(

So this post actually has nothing to do with Darfur, back to that tomorrow. Our assignment for class is to write a "what we did over sping break post." Now I know the phrase, what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico is commonly used, but I'm willing to share some of the g-rated highlights.

My flight left Boston at 6 on a Sunday...not so great. I went on my trip with my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Lonnie. We had a little trouble getting down to Mexico with our flights. But it all worked out okay. It was worth it to get there.

The picture above are of the mountains flying in.
We were staying at the Villa del Palmar in Puerto Vallarta (that’s a site that allows you to view the hotel, and incase, after you see it, you want to make a reservation, you can) Our room was so amazing we didn’t want to leave it.
By day we were poolside or beach side. Julio was our friendly bartender that brought us ice-cold sodas every day. : )

By night, only because my mom (above) was also in the country, we experienced some of the nicer restaurants in the area. One, the Vista Grill, looked out over all of Puerto Vallarta and was one of the most gorgeous sights I have ever beheld.
Other highlights were :
jet skiing hours before we left the country!

Getting to see my dad! (unfortunately only for two days)

And of course, the gorgeous sunsets!


Try not to be jealous!

More on Darfur and professor Matson’s article suggestion tomorrow!

Ann Curry (rape victims)

On this dreary rainy day I thought it would be appropriate to talk about, in my opinion, the worst of the atrocities occurring in Darfur. Women and brutally raped as part of the Janjaweed’s terror. This is another Ann Curry article that I think give a simple but drastic enough cause of what’s going on. I couldn’t get the main video on this page to play, but there is also a set of three video excerpts at the bottom of the page. These pictures are from that video.

The video clips are of Darfurian women singing. What they are saying is to the right of the video. The courage and brevity they sing is so encouraging, yet at the same time you can see on their faces and in their eyes how much pain and grief they suffer from.


This is an excerpt from the story that affected me the most:
“Human Rights Watch estimates thousands of black women and girls have been systematically raped in the last three years.
"Often, women are scarred," says Eric Reeves, a Sudan analyst at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. "They have tendons cut, so as to mark them as having been raped. And, thus, unsuitable as brides and compromised as mothers and wives."

In the first sentence, the words “thousands” and “systematically raped” disturbed me the most, for obvious reasons. The worst part about the rapings, is that in the cultures in the region, a woman is shunned for being raped because she some how “brought it on herself.” When women are raped in the US, not that I’m saying that it’s good women get raped any where, there is so much support. Often that’s a major factor of how rape victims get through the experience. Not that I can relate or say someone’s experience is better than another’s.


I think of how I was at 17, rebellious and trying to do everything to get out of chores. My chores were typically cleaning my room or emptying the dishwasher. I try and think what it would be like to be putting dishes away and instead of worrying about what my friends were doing, worrying about getting raped. That’s clearly not a possibility or even a fathomable thought to have ever crossed my mind.

To leave this disturbing blog on a happy note, for me anyway, I am going away on spring break to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! I will start blogging again when I return on the 11th!