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We are trying to help the Darfurian refugees and victims. Our money goes to World Vision's humanitarian aid program in Darfur. Last year we raised $4,700 and this year's total is still being calculated as we are still fundraising.

See It: The Community being helped

See It: The Community being helped

The idea of the benefit concert began in the summer of 2005. After reading the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder I was insired to take action. The book chronicles the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and his organization Partners In Health (PIH). The organization goes to impovershed countried such as Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda, to not only supply medical care, but, to help the local people build their own hospitals and clinics and earn medical degrees in the United States. PIH is also a leader in treating HIV/AIDs and antibiotic resistant TB. I decided to plan a benefit concert after the Live 8 concert took place that same summer. Through my school's student government we planned the concert and raised over $700.00. All the bands that played concert donated their time, the local police department donated two police officers, local pizza restaurants supplied pizza, local grocery stores provided beverages and deserts, and local business purchased specially desgned t-shirts for the concert. This years concert will be in April 4th, and this time will benefit the victims of the Darfur genocide. The NFAid committee has already raised almost $300.00 through the holiday sale of homemade jewlery, handmade ornaments from Africa, and support bracelets. In addition to the concert, we are working on finding a Darfur refugee to speak at our school and building a display of 30,000 paper cranes(a low estimate of the number of lives taken in the genocide). All the money will be donated to a group called Darfur Peace and Development. We hope to raise over $1,000.000 this year.

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A group of concerned students at the Community College of Baltimore County have formed a team determined to bring relief to the people of Darfur and the Sudan. Together we are planning the "Walk For Darfur" which we hope to raise money and awareness not only on our campus but the entire Baltimore-Metro region. We are hoping to pull off the walk on April 12th, 2008, the location and other details are still to come. It is our goal to donate as much money as we can UNICEF, in hopes of bringing food, health care, education and a future for the children effected by the genocide in Darfur.

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We are trying at our school to do a huge fundraiser for the refugees in Darfur, Sudan. We are holding a lunch fast, selling bracelets and tshirts, and attempting to put together a battle of the bands. We are also looking into hosting a Guitar Hero contest! We are enthusiastic and working like crazy to make it an unforgetable fundraiser - we really need our generation to reevaluate our priorities and open our eyes to the genocide happening in our lifetime. This is the holocaust of our time, and we can't just sit by and let history rewrite itself. It is our responsibility as humans to do everything in our power to help these people who so desparatly rely on foreign support.

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The Darfur crisis has been a popular subject for some time now. You hear about it at school, on TV, and on the internet. When I heard about it, I began researching it and learning more and more. I became very interested, and wanted to do somehting to help. Many people around here in New Orleans like to go to small concerts on the weekedns to see their favorite local bands. Naturally, I decided to put together a fund-raiser concert called Darfur Fest. With help, I got five great and popular bands to play: Angry Banana, Fatter Than Albert, Citizen: Dred, Good Day For An Airstrike, and A Living Soundtrack. They will play at a venue downtown called the Big Top. At the show, we will be taking donations, selling merchandise, and the money for tickets will all go to the Save Darfur Coalition. It will be on May24th of this year and everybody is very excited to go to the show & to help out! The only step left is paying the Big Top the given price in order to use their venue...

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The Clearinghouse for the Sudan Divestment Movement

The new millennium's first genocide rages unabated into its fifth year in the Darfur region of Sudan. For the first time in history, governments, along with numerous other political and non-profit entities, have declared that an ongoing massacre amounts to genocide. While humanitarian groups have courageously assisted the millions of displaced in Darfur, international action has been shamefully underwhelming. The magnitude of the crimes in Darfur, combined with the failure of the international community to stem these horrors, has given institutions around the world impetus to act. Harkening back to the days of Apartheid South Africa, individuals, governments and investors have explored the option of divesting from companies that either do business in Sudan or with the government of Sudan.

As the coordinating entity for the Sudan divestment movement, the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a project of the Genocide Intervention Network, is actively involved in hundreds of successful and developing targeted Sudan divestment campaigns around the world at the university, asset manager, city, state, and national levels. The Sudan Divestment Task Force has developed a unique approach to shareholder activism and divestment, focusing the campaigns efforts on the most problematic companies in Sudan. This approach, termed targeted divestment, helps to maximize impact on the Sudanese government, while minimizing potential harm to both innocent Sudanese civilians and investment returns.

Since the Sudan divestment campaign was initiated in 2005:

1. 22 states have adopted divestment policies from Sudan and 23 states have initiated Sudan divestment campaigns.

2. The United States Government has approved the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act which authorizes and encourages state and local divestment, prohibits federal contracts with problematic companies that operate in Sudan’s oil, power, mineral and military sectors and provides legal protections to asset managers that choose to divest from Sudan.

3. 58 universities have adopted divestment policies from Sudan. 47 universities have initiated campaigns to pursue Sudan divestment policies.

4. 11 cities have adopted divestment policies from Sudan.

5. 15 countries have initiated targeted Sudan divestment campaigns. International divestment campaigns currently include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the US, and the UK.

6. 9 major companies have ceased operations in Sudan or significantly changed their behavior in the country since the proliferation of the Sudan divestment movement.

7. Thousands of individuals, including a number of US presidential candidates, have used the Sudan Divestment Task Force's mutual fund screening tool to ensure that their own investments aren't supporting the genocide.

Click here to download a podcast from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force.

Click here to watch a trailer and clips for Darfur Now!, a new documentary featuring Adam Sterling and Don Cheadle, from Warner Independent and Participant Productions.

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A project directed by Village Help for South Sudan, Inc.
This website is focused on providing financial assistance to the people of the Wunlang Village in southern Sudan, Africa.
In Wunlang, the children sit outside under trees on long branches because they don't have a school building. They lack basic necessities such as school supplies and desks. During the rainy season of May to October the school is closed. Also, during the dry season of December to May the school is closed because it is too hot outside.
Our long-term plan for the Wunlang School Project includes raising enough money to construct an actual building for the primary school. This structure would include eight classrooms and two offices for teachers. We also plan to provide supplies, clean water, and food support for the school; uniforms and shoes for the students; a school health clinic and housing for guests and teachers; and a computer lab to introduce technology to Wunlang and connect students with their counterparts in America. With your generosity we can help make this school a reality for hundreds of deserving children. http://www.helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=20
http://www.helpwunlang.org

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FORGE is a US-based international nonprofit organization that works with displaced communities in Africa. We invest in individuals affected by war to pursue education, economic self-sufficiency, and local development solutions in order to build capacity in African communities and lay the foundation for peace, stability and prosperity.

By investing in promising refugee individuals, FORGE provides opportunities for refugees to transform their home communities, both in camps and in the countries where they will eventually repatriate. To this end, FORGE provides microloans, educational sponsorship, and social-entrepreneurship opportunities to refugees with a vision for improving their communities. Additionally, FORGE manages 32 refugee-run development projects including libraries, computer centers, preschools, health education programs, a refugee-rights advocacy center, arts & music programs, and adult education programs.

FORGE works with over 50,000 refugee men, women, and children from the DR Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, and Sudan in three UN-managed camps in Zambia.

www.FORGEnow.org

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It started when I was doing a Martin Luther King play in January 2006. I learned that there is slavery in some countries. It made me feel mad because I have all these things and all these fun things to do while they have to just work all the time. I decided to turn my angry energy into helping people energy. I asked my mom to read me a list of places where there is slavery and people being treated badly and when she said “Sudan” I said “Hey, I’ve heard of Sudan. I just did Sudan on the Africa map at school.”

At first I and my friends wanted to fly there to fix their lives but my mom wouldn’t let us. Then my friends said “ok, then our moms should fly there.” That’s when I knew my friends weren’t serious about it. So I told my teachers and some family about it and they gave me money. We found a charity called Kids for Kids on the web. They buy goats so that the kids can have milk and they can trade it for clothes, food, sheep, camels, and medicine. They give goats because money doesn't breed but goats do and make more goats.

I decided I didn’t like to just ask people for money to help kids in Sudan because it was too embarrassing so I wanted to sell something to get the money instead. Awhile before that, my mom went to Soft Star Shoes to buy some moccasins for my little brother Jack, and I got to have a tour and they gave me some leather scraps and they told me I had to do something with them, so I did. Deann at the shop had told me that cats like to play with strips of the fur. But I wanted to use the leather too so I thought I could make a stuffed sphere part with a face to attach to the fur. And then we couldn’t make a sphere because it was too hard so instead we just put stuffing between two circle shapes so it was kind of flat. That’s when I invented the Playful Pancakes and made one for my grandparents’ cat Nacho for Christmas.

I got the idea that I could make more Playful Pancakes and sell them and give the money to Kids for Kids. So I went to Soft Star Shoes and asked them if I could come get more scraps to make more cat toys. They said yes and also said they would sell them on their website. They give me the leather and sheepskin scraps whenever I need more.

I sold the first one in March 2006. That’s when Soft Star Shoes put up the website to sell them. I was 7 and in 1st grade.