A WEAPON OF WAR NEVER IN A MILITARY BUDGET

I have sponsored sisters through www.womenforwomen.org
for years. It is an annual commitment to sponsor her so that she can improve her life, her children's lives and her community ~ and therefore improve the world.
Letters and pictures are exchanged. If you can offer some help, please do.

...............................................

...............................................
WAR
Edwin Starr
Uploaded by cooyah

...............................................

...............................................
Uploaded by WomenforWomenIntl
Women Used as Weapons of War

Remember Darfur
www.darfurolympics.org

INHUMANE HUMANITY - A LEGACY OF INGORING GENOCIDE

GENOCIDE - A CHOICE

SPEAKING OUT AGAINST GENOCIDE - A CHOICE

SAYING NOTHING ABOUT GENOCIDE - A CHOICE

WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE?

While the Olympics go on in China, Russia invades Georgia, the USA fights in Iraq - the genocide by Sudan and "sponsored" by China is in its sixth year. The USA has done nothing more than lip service to the dire crisis of the Darfuri people. And the USA has lost credibility in the world and when President Bush speaks, no one is listening.

How much media attention is being given to Darfur in your local and national media? Not much at all here in the USA. It is shameful that this huge story is so under reported.

Did you know....

In Darfur, men are often killed or captured when they leave refugee camps to collect firewood. So the women venture out instead—and regularly fall prey to a targeted campaign of rape encouraged by the Sudanese government.

China blindly backs the Sudanese government and allows this brutality to continue. While the Chinese government basks in the glow of the Olympic Games, it is still selling Sudan weapons that enable these atrocities.

This week, Save Darfur's partner organization, Dream for Darfur, is highlighting China's role in this deteriorating situation as part of their alternative "Darfur Olympics." Will you join them?

Click here to help Dream for Darfur raise awareness about China's role in violence against Darfuri women. And urge Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take immediate action.

While China hosts the Olympic Games under the banner of peace and brotherhood, Dream for Darfur's daily webcasts are revealing the devastation enabled by China's weapons. Each day this week, Dream for Darfur is focusing on a different crisis facing the people of Darfur. Today, they're turning the world's eye to widespread sexual violence.

Sexual violence in Darfur is not just a series of random acts. It is a weapon of genocide. Peacekeepers have tried to protect women, but they have failed because they are short of resources and stretched too thin to do the job.

Show your support for Dream for Darfur's efforts. Click here to support the Darfur Olympics and urge Secretary Rice to help protect Darfuri women.

The world cannot sit by while sexual violence rages in Darfur. Today, Dream for Darfur is speaking out against this weapon of genocide. Add your voice, and demand protection for the women of Darfur. Source

............................................................
Day 3: Caring for Families

............................................................
Be an advocate to STOP GENOCIDE

Refugees have insufficient food, shelter, clean water and medical attention.

In Darfur, there are roughly two million people who have been outside the reach of humanitarian aid for years.

As the violence in the region has worsened over the past few months, humanitarian groups have been forced to scale back their operations, leaving a greater number of Darfurians without assistance.

www.darfurolympics.org

Urge the State Department to help deploy peacekeepers for Darfur, and to equip and enable them to protect the women of Darfur.

Write to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by clicking here.

Deteriorating humanitarian conditions and access, amidst deepening insecurity, present unprecedented threats to civilians previously displaced or affected by ethnically-targeted violence

Eric Reeves
August 9, 2008

Despite what amounts to a humanitarian “news black-out” mounted by UN officials in Khartoum, a host of indicators suggest that Darfuris have entered the most perilous season of destruction since the advent of major humanitarian operations in summer 2004. Significant malnutrition is already in evidence according to numerous confidential reports from the ground in Darfur and from well-informed humanitarian officials. This occurs as the population in need of food grows by approximately one million human beings during the current rainy season/hunger gap. Prospects for harvests in the fall are gloomy, and this follows the disastrous harvests of last year, especially in South Darfur and North Darfur. Food prices have increased by 150% in some areas. Because Khartoum refuses to escort UN World Food Program convoys in sufficient numbers, WFP is still unable to provide full rations to individuals weakened by more than five years of conflict. Other threats to civilians include a growing lack of potable water, diminished access to primary medical care, and a continuing climate of violence and impunity, threatening not only vulnerable civilians but humanitarian workers.
Read the entire article

HUMANITY THAT ALLOWS GENOCIDE IS OUR LEGACY

WE ARE GIVEN LOVE TO GIVE IT ~ BE A SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN THE CONGO

On Tuesday April 8, at 10pm HBO is premiering the Sundance Film Festival’s 2008 award-winning documentary The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. It will continue to air throughout the month of April.

This powerful, moving film literally breaks through the wall of silence and opens the world's eyes to the tens of thousands of women and small children who have been raped, mutilated and tortured in the name of war.

Emmy award winning producer/director Lisa F. Jackson takes you into the war zones of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and introduces you to some of the most courageous, inspiring women and children you'll ever meet. With the help of Women for Women International’s Country Director, Christine Karumba, she interviewed participants in our program. For decades they have suffered in shame and silence. Now, they are sharing their painful stories with the hope that it will help end these atrocities and they can feel the peace that you and I enjoy every day.

The stories these women tell are not just about the unspeakable tragedies they have endured. Their stories are also about hope, courage and amazing resilience.

It is our privilege (Women for Women) to work with these women. In the last two years, we have expanded our programs to reach remote villages and have now helped over 15,000. The women in our programs receive rights awareness training, job skills training, money for food, clothes and schooling for their children. And Women for Women International provides a support system that helps her move from victim to survivor to active citizen.

I truly hope that you'll join me in learning more about what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo by watching The Greatest Silence.

These women have been given a voice. Now their voices need to be heard.

I made minor edit changes to the above text that was sent to me by Women for Women.

A true life survivor:

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Esperance, 17, was walking to market with her mother in 2003 when she was abducted by an armed militia unit. She was taken to a military encampment, raped and assembled with 19 other
young women.

At dawn, as if in class, they were instructed in how their lives would change.
Every day, they would be awakened to wash, cook, and clean for their captors.

"We worked hard," she recalls. “It was to your advantage to work. If you were working, you got some rest. If you were not working, you were being raped.

Several months later, pregnant and critically ill, she was sent away to die by the soldiers. Some villagers found her and took her to a hospital where she received proper medical care. Somewhat restored, she gave birth to a son named Daniel.
Like many rape victims, she loves the child she knows is an innocent victim.
Yet his face is a constant reminder of the soldier who enslaved her.

With facial features different from her own background, Daniel, like many children born to raped mothers during this war, is treated as an outcast by many in her community.

Esperance whose name means "hope", lives again with her mother and the child and she has returned to school. "I want to focus my energy on my studies and nothing else," she says. "My aspiration is to become a nurse."

If you'd like you can send a message of hope right now to a woman in the Congo. Simply follow this link. What may seem like only a few words to you could be the very hope and inspiration a Congolese woman needs to carry on.