Clothes Call for Darfur

B'nai Israel of Southbury is participating in the Connecticut Clothing Drive for Darfur and will arrange to ship donations to the camps in Chad and Darfur. Items may be brought to B'nai Israel at 444 Main Street North, Southbury.

Donations are also needed to pay for ocean freight to ship the items. Checks may be made out to B'nai Israel with a notation "Connecticut Clothing Drive for Darfur" or sent directly to the Darfur Peace and Development Organization, 3711 Rupp Drive, Suite 208, Fort Wayne, IN 46815.

A flyer with more information may be downloaded as either a Word document or as a PDF document.

The Promise on Capitol Hill

On Thursday, April 19th, Congressman Murphy and Congressman Shays will host a group from Danbury High School, led by Assistant Principal Tim Salem, for a viewing of "The Promise." Mr. Salem will be joined by senior Alysha Rashid, senior Max Delahanty, and senior Sabrina Wirth. Mia Farrow may join the group.

The group will be gathering from 4-5pm in 2105 Rayburn House Office Building. The media will be invited to attend.

Global Day For Darfur

The Save Darfur Coalition designated April 29, 2007 as a Global Day for Darfur. The Save Darfur Coalition will be working with member organizations and local leaders to encourage local and regional Darfur events aimed to sustain awareness and action for the people of Darfur.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs will work to ensure the Jewish community is kept informed of developments for the day and help member agencies to organize local events and rallies. The Save Darfur Coalition will be providing resources for local groups for organizing efforts including outreach materials, event materials and planning toolkit, publicity materials, and a grant program. Please send an email to global@savedarfur.org for more information about these resources.

Join Bill Frist in Calling the White House

From Senator Bill Frist:

Dial 1-800-671-7887 to urge President Bush to save lives in Darfur by launching "Plan B" immediately.

Once you've hung up, click here to report your call back to the Save Darfur Coalition.

Each year I travel to Africa as a medical missionary. I've just returned from my latest trip, a deeply troubling visit to the Sudan.

Due to a series of increasingly violent attacks on foreign aid workers in Darfur over the past six months, international efforts to protect civilians and provide them with food, clean water, shelter, and medical care are in a state of crisis.

Countless men, women, and children are in real danger of falling prey to violence, starvation, or disease as a result of these attacks.

The U.S. must take the lead in working with the international community to end the violence. The lives of millions hang in the balance.

Please join me in calling the White House comment line today to urge President Bush to launch "Plan B," his tough, three-tiered plan to push Sudan to end the genocide, before more lives are lost in Darfur.

It will only take two minutes of your time and could make a world of difference for millions of people in need. Just follow the steps below:

Dial 1-800-671-7887 (toll-free)
Once you've been transferred to the comment line leave your comment using the talking points below:
- I'm calling to urge President Bush to implement "Plan B" to help bring an end to the genocide in Darfur. Specifically, I am asking him to:
- Enforce tough sanctions against Sudan;
- Work with the UN to authorize and enforce a no-fly zone over Darfur to protect civilians from Sudanese bombers; and
- Press the UN for faster deployment of UN peacekeepers to protect civilians in Darfur.
Click here to report your call back to the Save Darfur Coalition (this step is crucial - please don't skip it.)

The U.S. and the international community are all that stand between millions of civilians in Darfur and the Sudanese regime's policy of genocide. Hundreds of thousands have already been killed, and time is running out for millions more.

Without tough "Plan B" measures to accompany diplomatic efforts, the international community's efforts to end the violence in Darfur are doomed to fail.

Please follow the steps above to join me in calling the White House comment line to ask President Bush to launch "Plan B" without further delay, then click here to report your call back to the Save Darfur Coalition.

I hope you will help me spread this message of urgent action by forwarding my email to your friends, family and co-workers and asking them to join you in taking two minutes to call the White House.

Thank you for your ongoing advocacy on behalf of the people of Darfur.

Sincerely,

Senator Bill Frist, M.D.

Update

Prepared by David Morse

Disturbing evidence, much of it arriving in the past two days, suggests that the situation is about to change very rapidly in Darfur and neighboring Chad. Our coalition should be ready to respond to the issues that we can expect to come to a head in coming weeks.

… continued …

Take Action — Call the President

Main White House Switchboard	(202) 456-1414
Presidential Inquiries Comments Office	(202) 456-1111

Write Now

Please send a letter to the editor of your area newspaper to keep this conflict in the public spotlight.

Below are talking points to guide you when you write it. (Additional background on the conflict or recent news reports can be found on www.savedarfur.org.) Remember to keep the letter to 200 words or less and print full name, address and phone number for the paper's verification process. Many thanks.

Talking Points

From Cindy Mann:

In spite of the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement, violence in Darfur is still widespread, with civilians and aid workers facing threats to their lives on a daily basis. At the same time, the World Food Program was forced to reduce its rations for the people of Darfur to below the daily minimum requirements. Elie Wiesel, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, has called Darfur "the center of human suffering today."

You should include the points that the United States and the international community must:

pressure the government of Sudan to agree to a U.N. peacekeeping force to provide security and help implement the peace agreement.
push for a U.N. Security Council resolution to authorize the deployment of such a force with a sufficient mandate and to be in place by October of 2006.

You might also point out to readers that those who are concerned about Darfur should:

Call President Bush and urge him to appoint a special presidential envoy to Sudan: 202-456-1111.
Donate money for food to Darfur through the World Food Program. Details can be found at: friendsofwfp.org.
Be in New York to rally for peacekeepers at the United Nations on September 17.

To send a letter to the:

Connecticut Post: swinters@ctpost.com
Hartford Courant: letters@courant.com
New Haven Register: letters@nhregister.com
Stamford Advocate: joy.haenlein@scni.com
Waterbury Republican-American: opinion@rep-am.com

And don't stop there. Try to get all the papers in the state to pay attention. Feel free to mention the work of the Connecticut Coalition and the fact that we helped to get hundreds of people to the Washington rally and we will do the same for New York.

Bulls Without Horns

Linda Mason, Founder of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, reports on African Union troops in Darfur being too few with too little.

Take Action — Write Letters

Write a Letter to Former President Bill Clinton

At the urgin of Chris Doucot, Coalition members Marge and David Schneider composed a letter to send to Bill Clinton in the hope of inspiring him to travel to Khartoum, Sudan to influence the Bashir government to stop the bloodshed and violence in Darfur.

View the letter and then send your own addressed to:

The Honorable William J. Clinton
55 W. 125th Street
New York NY 10027
Write a Letter to the President

Write the President thanking him for his commitment and including suggestions for ending the genocide. The national Save Darfur Coalition web site contains many suggestions that can be used.

The mailing address for President Bush at the White House is:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500.

Lucy Katz talks to Sunday School students and their parents about the genocide in Darfur and what steps they can take to help stop it. Sunday December 10, 2006 at Bedford Middle School in Westport, CT where the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Fairfield County holds its weekly Sunday School and Adult Education programs.

Connecticut Rallies in Washington DC

Click to View Photos and Observations from the April 30 Rally