to sudan with love

i'm not sure why i haven't posted about this yet, but for those that don't know, daniel and i and many others from our community have been helping to prepare for the "Charlotte Torch Rally" here in charlotte this saturday (december 1st). we have a friend, steve, whose passion is extremely contagious and hard to miss. if it hadn't been for steve and his wife, rachael, we would be only educated about sudan and the darfur genocide by what we periodically hear about in the media.

facts:: 2.5 million sudanese people have died due to violence, starvation and disease. 7 million have been displaced from their homes while being bombed in raids by their own government of sudan!! 200,000 people have been taken into slavery. rape is one of the strongest forms of violence that occurs in the darfur region.

an extreme amount death, rape, starvation and displacement has been conducted on the sudanese people by the government and government-backed militia (muslim extremists called the "janjaweed"). the region of darfur has become one of the most devastating areas of human suffering. this is the first time in history that genocide has been labeled on an event while it was still happening and the world continues to stand by and watch. it is an extreme atrocity.

most of you may be asking, “so what is this Torch Rally all about?”. oil is sudan’s most prized possession and china is sudan’s most favorite customer. china pays Sudan for the oil with weapons, which go into the militia’s hands, which in turn, continue to torment the people of darfur. all this for oil and money for the government. three years ago colin powell named this event as the first genocide of the 21st century...3 years have passed and still there isn’t much that the UN is doing to protect these helpless people and stop the government in khartom (sudan's capital).

the “Charlotte Torch Rally” is using the platform of china's olympic games to raise awareness of the genocide. daniel and i will be working in the petition booth for people to petition the government of china to stop the weapons exchange to sudan. we are excited to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

in addition to making people aware of China's part of the genocide, the rally is also raising education funds for the many "lost boys"* that are refugees to our city of charlotte. i've met a few of these boys, now grown men, and have been completly humbled by their life stories of survival.

please be praying about our rally and also what you might be able to do personally for the darfuris. i'll update with pictures on saturday.

*the "lost boys" of sudan is a term that was later given to the 20,000 boys that were orphaned by the raids in their villages and made the trek across the african landscape towards safer grounds of ethiopia and kenya. during their trek by foot, many of these boys (some of them younger than 5 years old) died due to starvation, disease and wild animals. while many of these "lost boys" still live in refugee camps in kenya (now for 10+ years) 4,000 of them have taken refuge in the US. for further reading, read "What is the What".

sites to visit for more information::
www.charlottetorchrally.com
www.savedarfur.org
www.notonourwatch.com
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/lostboysofsudan/