The NY Times Article mentions STAND and we are also in the Daily Colonial both are below

GW STAND sparks a nationwide movement

Posted Saturday, October 8 2005 04:52:16 am

By Emily Metz
Senior Staff Writer

Last fall, GW alum Julie Kramer's eyes opened wide during a visit to the National Holocaust Museum. She saw an announcement detailing racial genocide that was currently occurring in the Sudan, namely Darfur.

Kramer felt a call to action and enlisted the help of four other GW students: Tsufit Daniels, Sara Weisman and Phil Getz. After initially meeting in Starbucks coffee shop, they eventually were sponsored last fall by Books for Africa and the GW Hillel and went on to create a nationwide movement.

"STANDs have been sprouting up all over the country," said Weisman. There are over 200 chapters across the United States and Canada from high schools to universities.

Officially recognized as a GW organization in the spring 2005, the four members held meetings which gradually increased in attendance to around 30. Today, that number has increased to about 50 students participating in weekly meetings and about 280 on the Listserv.

"Last year when we talked about Darfur, people looked at us like we were crazy," said Weisman. This year, she is convinced people are aware of the travesty and want to get involved.

Freshman Paula Halicek, a newer member, joined because she wanted to spread the message.

"People are just ignorant," she said. "I don't think they understand the sheer magnitude of what is going on. That is why GW STAND is so important… why I'm involved. People need to realize what is happening in the world around them."

The goals of GW STAND are simple: raise awareness not only within the GW community, but throughout the nation and the world, which has proven a success.

The latest STAND chapter was created this fall at the University of Virginia.

"I remember we read this article in the Washington Post about the genocide in Darfur," said co-founder Brian Bolin. "We knew we had to do something,"

The group also focuses on two other components, fundraising and activism, often utilizing GW's location to lobby the Senate and protest at the White House.

Earlier this week, GW STAND participated in the International Solidarity Fast. On campuses across the country, STAND encouraged students to give up one luxury for the day. The events were be broadcast to refugee camps in Chad, so the people know they are not forgotten.

Everyone participating wore a green piece of yarn on their wrist to represent their cause.

In addition, there was a free benefit concert featuring local bands and Ruth Messenger, president of the American Jewish World Service Organization, as keynote speaker in the Marvin Center Continental Ballroom.

The UVA chapter will also participated in the national fast, said Bolin. STAND also had a presence at the Rolling Stones concert, where the UVA chapter sold T-shirts, raising national awareness.

Another major goal of GW STAND this year will be to encourage the university to sever ties with those who sponsor the genocide. Weisman accused GW of having an endowment fund with millions of dollars invested in multinational corporations, some of which may be doing business with the Sudanese Government.

GW STAND is trying to get GW to admit to this allegation and also to divest their involvement with these corporations. "We don't want our tuition dollars supporting genocide," said Weisman.

Similar campaigns have been led at Dartmouth, Harvard and Stanford and these universities subsequently divested their endowment funds.

A similar campaign in taking place at UVA, as well. "Maybe we can coordinate our efforts," said UVA STAND co-founder Jessie Louise Miller.

According to Weisman, people are taking notice of their efforts. "Senators routinely tell us to keep up the work," she said. "We have to keep our operations going. There are a lot more responsibilities to live up to."

In February 2003, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry concluded that "crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be no less serious and heinous than genocide."

The Sudanese government has been accused of favoring Arab militias who commit crimes against non-Arabic ethnic groups, crimes which include the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, rape, torture, and the destruction of villages.

____________________________________________________________
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/opinion/09kristof.html

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: October 9, 2005
A year ago, a group of Swarthmore students decided to take on an
unusual extracurricular activity: stopping genocide.

Mark Hanis, one of the students, is Jewish and all four of his
grandparents survived the Holocaust. He was troubled by the way
generations of Americans acquiesced in one genocide after another -
only to apologize afterward and pledge "Never Again."

So Mr. Hanis and fellow students started to raise money to help
provide security to stop the slaughter in Darfur. In particular, they
wanted to help pay for African Union peacekeepers.

Their Genocide Intervention Fund has now raised $250,000 and is about
to hand over the first installment to the leaders of the African
Union. The money may be used to pay for female African police officers
to protect Darfur women from being raped.

The Genocide Intervention Fund now has an all-star cast, including the
backing of former White House officials, generals, and celebrities
like Mia Farrow and Don Cheadle. Its spokeswoman, a Rwandan genocide
survivor who is now a Swarthmore sophomore, introduced Bill Clinton at
a student conference. It has opened a Washington office and is
lobbying for the bipartisan Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which
calls for sanctions on Sudan and a no-fly zone.

"We do lobby days, where we arrange for people to come to Washington
to meet their Congressional offices and say, 'I've put $20 down to
protect the people of Darfur. What are you doing?' " said Mr. Hanis,
who graduated recently.

So far more than 100 colleges have raised money for the fund
(www.genocideinterventionfund.org), and universities have become the
center of the movement to stop the slaughter. A group started at
Georgetown, Stand (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), has chapters
nationwide and across Canada, and Harvard led a divestment effort by
having its endowment sell stock in companies that support the Sudanese
government.

In the long term, the organizers hope to encourage more education
about genocide in American schools - California and a few other states
have passed laws that public schools must include education about
genocide - and to bolster an early warning system so that the world
will respond to atrocities more promptly.

"We're getting smarter at this," Mr. Hanis said. "We're building a
permanent political constituency against genocide." He paused and
added soberly: "Of course, there are lives lost every day."

So while President Bush is proving wimpish on genocide, the response
of many ordinary Americans like Mr. Hanis has been inspiring. Aside
from students, the leaders in the effort include Jewish and Armenian
groups (the word genocide has special resonance for both) and
religious groups.

In Dallas, Temple Emanu-El started Dolls for Darfur, which has made
thousands of tiny paper dolls representing the victims of Darfur. It
has sent them to senators and is preparing "advocacy kits" to help
people lobby for a sterner American response to the genocide (see
dollsfordarfur.org).

Then there are the big-hearted folks at Ginghamsburg Church, a large
Methodist church in Tipp City, Ohio. After the pastor, Mike Slaughter,
read about atrocities in Darfur, he decided to ask the congregation to
spend only half as much on Christmas presents last year as they
planned, and to donate the rest to victims in Darfur.

The result, along with other fund-raising efforts, was $327,000 in
donations; the congregation is planning the same campaign this
Christmas. The money is being used to keep children alive and safe in
South Darfur.

"We recognize that this is only a pittance in the face of the entire
crisis in Darfur," says Karen Smith, director of operations for the
church. "However, if we can successfully engage other churches across
the U.S. in this call so that they issue the same challenge to their
constituents, the impact could truly be God-sized."

During the Holocaust, when Franklin Roosevelt was as uninterested in
genocide as George W. Bush is today, Arthur Koestler referred to those
who demanded action as "the screamers." Today, Mr. Hanis, Ms. Smith
and others like them are "the screamers," and if it weren't for them
the death toll in Darfur would be even higher. Countless thousands of
survivors sitting in refugee camps owe their lives to screams coming
from places like Swarthmore or Ginghamsburg.

So out of the miasma of horror that is Darfur, something uplifting is
taking place. Ordinary Americans are finding creative ways to respond
to the slaughter, so that they personally inject meaning into those
traditionally hollow words: Never Again.



--
Sara Weisman


"Never again" – please join me in helping stop the genocide in Darfur
Visit http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/ to learn more.

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Apartment 418
Washington, DC 20006
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