Tuesday, November 07, 2006

No, not Israel - Darfur

Received from a friend, Mace Berrin:
Dear Friends and Family,

My son, Seraphya, has been coordinating campaigns and rallies to spread knowledge about Darfur and the atrocities occurring there (please see blurb at end of email). He helped coordinate events in Australia, and now while studying in Israel he has taken on a leadership position to coordinate these events in Israel. He recently was the country coordinator for the World Darfur Day in Israel where thousands attended a rally. (Talmidim Against Genocide, Israel for Darfur)

Running these campaigns and rallies are a costly endeavor and for this year he is looking to raise $20,000 for the overall campaign. For the short-term there is an upcoming rally where he needs to raise $1,500 by November 17th for such things as:
  • Platform rental
  • Speaker system rental
  • Print fliers for publicity for and during the rally both in English and Hebrew
  • Travel Expenses and Costs for speakers
I think this is a very worthy cause, and while he is putting in hundreds of hours of volunteering, I hope we can help him raise monies to allow these functions to be a success.

Seraphya would appreciate your donation of any amount, whether it be a few dollars or hundreds of dollars. The easiest/quickest way to forward donations is to use paypal to my account (maceberrin@gmail.com) and put in the note "Darfur Campaign". He needs to raise the money in the next 10 days, so whatever you can contribute would be appreciated.

There is no room for genocide in our world, help us end the atrocities.

Love,
Mace Berrin

In Darfur there is Genocide
  • Since February 2003, 400,000 people have died, 2.5 million people have been displaced and 3.5 million people risk starvation.
  • Each day, over 500 innocent people die from violence, malnutrition and disease.
  • Darfurians experience horrendous crimes in their villages and even in Refugee Camps including gang rapes, burning of homes and religious buildings, killing of babies, and other atrocities.
  • Government-backed Arab militias, known collectively as the Janjaweed, systematically eliminate entire communities. Government air strikes frequently precede these vicious militia raids. Villages are razed; women, men, and children are raped, tortured, and murdered.
  • Relief organizations have been targeted and aid workers have been arrested by the Sudanese government.
  • The Janjaweed also target and destroy Darfurian food and water supplies, threatening the victim’s chance for survival. The government has not only denied involvement with the massacres, but its police have also attacked displacement camps.
  • One refugee told NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof: “the Arabs want to get rid of anyone with black skin. . . . There are no blacks left [in the area I fled].”
  • The US Congress has labeled Darfur a “genocide”. The UN called it “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”. The international community has only meagerly addressed Darfur.
EDUCATE YOURSELF AND HELP

BRING AN END TO THIS GENOCIDE

www.SaveDarfur.org
I urge you to act, either through assisting Seraphya or TAG, educating yourself and others, or in some other way.

Yehuda

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