Domestic Campaigns

Million Voices for Darfur

The Save Darfur Coalition launched the "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign in January 2006, on the fifty-fifth anniversary of the ratification of the U.N. Convention on Genocide. The national effort delivered one million hand-written and electronic postcards to President Bush, demanding that he support a stronger multinational peacekeeping force to protect the people of Darfur.
Signatures were gathered at small-town community events, large-scale urban rallies, religious services, and classroom presentations in every state. The diverse Americans who signed the postcards spoke with a unified voice, demanding that President Bush take the necessary actions to end the genocide. On June 29, 2006, the one-millionth postcard was signed by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), just six months after the launch of the campaign.

Rally to Stop Genocide

On April 30, 2006, the Coalition organized "Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide" on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and encouraged grassroots activists to hold rallies in their own communities around the country. More than 50,000 people gathered in the capital to hear from leading voices in the effort to stop the genocide in Darfur, including a broad spectrum of prominent faith leaders, survivors of other genocides, political figures, human rights activists, and celebrities. George Clooney, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), and Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel were among the speakers. There was extensive television coverage, with more than 800 stories broadcast in the United States and Canada. Articles about the rally were published in newspapers that reached a readership of an estimated 31 million people in the United States and Canada alone.

Brian Steidle's "Tour for Darfur: Eyewitness to Genocide"

The coalition organized a speaking tour for former Marine Captain Brian Steidle, who served as the U.S. representative to the African Union's mission in Darfur. The tour traveled to twenty-two cities in eleven states and logged more than 21,000 miles from coast to coast. Steidle left a lasting impression on tens of thousands of newspaper readers, radio listeners, television viewers, and - more importantly - newspaper editors, many of whom first learned the details of the crisis in Darfur during editorial board meetings and interviews with Steidle.

Media attention for Steidle's tour was nothing short of exceptional. A well-timed column by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Trudy Rubin was reprinted across the nation by Knight Ridder News Service. The tour built a media presence for the coalition in anticipation of the April 30th rally in Washington, D.C., and more than five months later, on September 27th, the tour generated a front-page article in USA Today, including an above-the-fold photograph.

Divestment

The Save Darfur Coalition's Divest for Darfur Campaign encourages and promotes divestment as a strategy to exert financial pressure on the government of Sudan to change its policies and bring peace to the people of Darfur. Our first target was Fidelity, whose holdings in PetroChina - a Chinese oil company that has helped pour millions of dollars into the murderous Sudanese regime - exceeded $1.3 billion earlier this year. Although Fidelity sold a sizable portion of these holdings, it has refused to unload all of its stock, and we're determined to keep up the pressure until it does. After pressure from the coalition and its partners, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway - once the biggest shareholder in PetroChina outside of the Chinese government - divested all of its holdings.

The coalition is now targeting additional investment firms - including JP Morgan Chase, Franklin Templeton, Capital Group (American Funds), and Vanguard - whose holdings are helping fund the genocide. We are expanding our information campaign to let individual investors know if they are inadvertently investing in companies that are propping up the murderous Sudanese government, and we are also working to develop the divestment movement internationally. In addition, Save Darfur Coalition has played a leading role coordinating advocacy on the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act.

Dollars for Darfur: National School Fundraising Challenge

Utilizing emerging technology and viral marketing through social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, high school students recruited thousands of their peers to join the fundraising and awareness challenge. Over 2,000 schools signed up at the Dollars for Darfur website where they learned how to organize fundraising events. Students developed creative campaigns - concerts, walk-a-thons and raffles to get their classmates involved and include their community. In total, students raised $306,000 - half of which went to humanitarian efforts for Darfuri refugees and the other half toward advocacy efforts of the Save Darfur Coalition. This fall, both middle schools and high schools across the nation will build and organize fundraising campaigns to continue their work as humanitarians and activists.

Voices from Darfur

To increase awareness of the atrocities occurring in Darfur, the Save Darfur Coalition is sponsoring Voices from Darfur - a national speaking tour featuring refugees from Darfur. Voices from Darfur features speakers such as Daoud Hari, who fled his village in Darfur after months of bombings by his own government. When Daoud reached a refugee camp in neighboring Chad, he risked his life by re-entering Darfur to translate for New York Times, BBC, and National Geographic reporters and aid workers. Last summer, Daoud was arrested with Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek and subsequently tortured. A month later, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson negotiated their release and soon after, the United States government granted Daoud refugee status. Now, Daoud is traveling the country to tell the stories of Darfur.

Dream for Darfur

As Sudan's leading economic partner and leading political and military partner, China wields great influence with the Sudanese government. Yet China has only begun to use its power on behalf of the people of Darfur. Through its initial years of inaction, China has become complicit in the genocide. As the world prepares for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, an event that stands for peace and brotherhood, we demand that China use its full influence to end the killing in Darfur.

The coalition is working with our partner Olympic Dream for Darfur to turn political pressure into a grassroots movement for change through a global Olympic Torch Relay. The torch - a symbol of brotherhood, hope and humanity - is being carried through countries such as Rwanda, Chad, Bosnia and Germany as a way to link the situation in Darfur with past atrocities in these countries. In conjunction with the international effort a second torch is visiting more than 20 states in the United States. This massive undertaking is taking the issue of genocide literally to the streets, helping people understand in stark terms the obligation China has to use its power to end the genocide.