Dijana Muminovic poses with two photos from her exhibition called “From Bosnia to Bowling Green."

Dijana Muminovic came to the United States as a refugee in 1997, moving to Bowling Green, Kentucky after the end of the war in her native Bosnia and Herzegovina. She studied photojournalism at Western Kentucky University, and earned her bachelor’s degree in May 2009.

Dijana began her career as a photographer in Bowling Green, where she photographed recent immigrants and observed their struggles to adapt to a new culture. Her work was recognized and awarded by the Hearst National Competition in 2008. Despite the accolades, Dijana says that her proudest moment came in November 2009, when she photographed and interviewed Bosnian women who survived the genocide in Bosnia. The women and their stories had a powerful impact on Dijana, who continues her project of documenting survivors and family members of victims of the Bosnian genocide.

Bekto Hasik mourns his father, who was killed in the Srebrenica genocide when Bekto was four years old.

Dijana spoke and displayed her work at the 16th Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide on Capitol Hill. The event paid tribute to the 8,000 Muslims who were systematically murdered by Serbian forces on July 11, 1995 during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. Although 16 years have passed since the genocide in Srebrenica, the pain persists for the families of the victims.  Mass graves continue to be discovered throughout Bosnia, and the struggle to identify and bury those killed will stretch on for years to come. Dijana’s photographs show the raw emotions of the Bosnian people, who mourn the dead but persevere in their determination to find, identify, and give a dignified burial to all the innocent victims of the devastating war.

Mirza Davtovic has worked in the mortuary in the town of Visoko for ten years. Here, he labels coffins of genocide victims who have been identified.

Bekto Hasic, Mirza Davtoic, and Samir Samanija are just a few of the Bosnians whose stories Dijana brought back with her from Bosnia through her photography. The close-up of Bekto, whose father was killed in the Srebrenica genocide when Bekto was four years old, gives the viewer an intimate view of the acute pain that the families of victims experience. Mirza has worked for ten years in the mortuary in the town of Visoko. “This is the final stage, meaning we put the bones in coffins after they have been identified,” Dautovic explains. The vast amount of coffins shown in the photograph contain 774 bodies of Bosnian Muslim men who were killed. Samir Sabanija, an investigator from the Institute of Missing Persons, looks for four of his cousins in the town of Visegrad. About 800 Visegrad civilians were thrown in the river in 1992. The International Commission for the Missing Persons (ICMP) found 348 bones in September 22, 2010. In the spring of 1992 more than 3,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed during the violence in Visegrad, about 600 were women and 119 children.

Samir Sabanija, an investigator from the Institute of Missing Persons in Sarajevo, searches for genocide victims.

Through her work, Dijana Muminovic gives a voice to the voiceless. Her powerful photographs capture the scars of genocide and the courage of the Bosnian people, who carry on the search for thousands of victims still lost.  Dijana’s photography can be found on her website and more information about the Srebrenica genocide can be found here.

Cynthia Davis works on a canvas in her home studio as part of her Sudan Canvas Project. Photo: Brian A. Pounds | Connecticut Post

Her belief that one person can change the lives of many others guided Davis to found the Sudan Canvas Project, which uses art as a way to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan while generating funds to provide trade education to women in South Sudan. In one of the project’s current initiatives, artists from across Connecticut are creating works inspired by the lives of Sudanese women and Sudan in general. The art is due October 15^th and will be featured in an exhibition and then auctioned off at the Fairfield Arts Center on November 15^th; the proceeds from the event will go towards the project.

Davis’ commitment to improving the lives of Sudanese women led to her selection as a member of the Carl Wilkens Fellowship class of 2011. The Carl Wilkens Fellowship is designed to provide individuals with the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the fight to end genocide. It is named in honor of Carl Wilkens, the only American who chose to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and is credited with saving hundreds of lives. Davis’ spirit of service is in harmony with the theme of the program: ordinary individuals can make an extraordinary difference when they choose to engage.

Rebecca Tinsley visits with Darfuri children

Rebecca Tinsley is an accomplished journalist and human rights activist who was inspired to write her novel When the Stars Fall to Earth after returning from a trip to the Darfur region of Sudan.  When interviewing survivors of the genocide in Darfur at the El Geneina refugee camp, Rebecca was met by a request from the women of the camp: they asked her to be their voice. She wrote When the Stars Fall to Earth in keeping with that request, telling the stories of millions of Darfuris through the journeys of five young people displaced by the conflict in their homeland.  Rebecca’s portion of the proceeds from the sales of the book will go to organizations dedicated to helping survivors of genocide in Africa.

When the Stars Fall to Earth begins with 14 year old Zara clinging to a bare rock face, pressing herself as flat as possible to escape detection by Sudanese militia forces.  She is exhausted and utterly alone after surviving a brutal attack on her village in Darfur.  The book follows Zara’s journey, and the journey of four other young people also fleeing Sudanese militia attacks, to find safety in a world often hostile to their very existence.  The five encounter vastly different obstacles – from living in a refugee camp, to fighting in a rebel army, to growing accustomed to life in Western culture – but they all share the strength, dignity, and resilience of the Darfuri people.

Rebecca provides a framework for her story by including valuable information about the complex history and culture of Sudan, as well as explanations of the political motivations behind the genocide in Darfur. As a result, When the Stars Fall to Earth leaves the reader both educated about the intricate situation in Sudan and emotionally connected to its survivors.  It is a stunningly relevant book about the strength of the human spirit that bears witness to the tragedies of Darfur while continuing to hope for peace.

Click here to order the paperback version of When the Stars Fall to Earth on Amazon.com

Click here to order When the Stars Fall to Earth for your Kindle on Amazon.com

We are inviting Darfur activists to join this project by donating $20 at http://bookwish.org by April 30.  In return, your name will be published in the book.  A long list of supporters’ names will show everyone who reads it that Darfur and the refugees are not forgotten.

Contributors to What You Wish For: A Book For Darfur have sold more than 600 million books and won prestigious literary awards, including two Newbery Medals and a U.S. National Book Award: Alexander McCall Smith, Meg Cabot, Joyce Carol Oates, R.L. Stine, John Green, Cornelia Funke, Cynthia Voigt, Karen Hesse, Nikki Giovanni, Ann M. Martin, Jane Yolen, Nate Powell, Gary Soto, Jeanne DuPrau, Francisco X. Stork, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sofia Quintero.   In addition to Mia Farrow’s Foreword, the book also includes a statement from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.

What You Wish For: A Book For Darfur has been more than two years in the making, and we are excited to finally tell you about it.  We also want to share our story as a charity, how we got involved in the Darfur movement.  On September 22, 2007, Logan showed me an article in The Washington Post about one Darfuri’s mental anguish at having to re-read the same books over and over again, year after year, because he did not have access to anything else.  We could not imagine what it would be like to have barely any books to read.  That man, Azhari Ali, changed our lives forever.  We were deeply touched by his desire to learn despite the enormous challenges he faced living in a refugee camp in the harsh desert of Chad, and after the atrocities he must have witnessed in Darfur.

How many times do you read about something that disturbs you, and yet you move on?   I want to believe it’s not because we don’t care.  Rather, we don’t feel there’s any way our efforts will make a difference.  Azhari Ali’s story was different.  We felt we could do something that would matter.  At first, all we wanted to do was find a way to send him the types of books he wished for when he was interviewed by the Post reporter.   How does one send books to a refugee camp?

We started making phone calls and soon discovered that Ali was just the tip of the iceberg:  over 250,000 Darfuris living in the 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad had virtually no books to read.  This amazed us, still does.  Education is free in the camps, but what kind of an education can you get if you don’t have textbooks and your teacher is just a few years ahead of you in school?

The lack of books matched to the refugees’ school needs is especially heartbreaking when you hear Darfuris speak about how much they value education as a building block for their personal lives and for the future of Darfur.  It’s also tragic, amidst all the tragedies of Darfur, that people so traumatized do not have books to provide the kind of mental escape that we take for granted.

Back in 2007, we knew nothing about starting a 501(c)(3), but we did have a strong belief that providing reading aid to some of the world’s most vulnerable people was worth fighting for.   We’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way and changed some things, but one thing that has not changed is that, after nearly eight years living in the camps, Darfuri refugees still need books.

What You Wish For:  A Book for Darfur is our greatest effort to date to raise funds for libraries in the refugee camps.   We started organizing the book in September 2008, following a meeting with the prolific Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith, best known for The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, who just happened to be visiting our hometown of Reston, VA to talk about his work.  I will never forget those precious 20 minutes after his charming presentation, when the esteemed author sat down to talk with me about contributing a short story to the book – and he said “yes.”

The next two authors who signed on to the project were Cornelia Funke, the best-selling living author in the German language, and Ann M. Martin, who wrote the enormously popular The Baby-sitters Club series that sold over 180 million books.  With these three amazing authors committed to the book project, we reached out to publishers.  Landing one of the largest children’s book publishers in the world, Penguin, was another day I’ll always remember.

What You Wish For: A Book For Darfur is designed to have mass appeal and hopefully raise a lot of money for the refugee camp libraries, but it isn’t just about entertainment.  Many of the authors have taken the cause to heart and woven related themes into their stories.  We have included photos from the refugee camps and Darfur, an accessible “author’s note” about the history of the crisis and how books can help the refugees, and a list of resources for readers to learn more about Darfur and refugee issues.   We hope readers will both be entertained and, in the context of the cause, think, “how are the wishes in these stories related to the wishes of the refugees?”

Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons will publish What You Wish For: A Book For Darfur in September, and you can already pre-order it from several online booksellers (see http://bookwish.org/pre-order).  We hope you will pick up a copy with your name in it, knowing that you are helping to support this cause.  April 30 is the deadline to get your name in the book, so please visit http://bookwish.org today.

Contact Lorraine Kleinwaks at lorraine@bookwish.org for questions.  For updates, follow us on Twitter @bookwish or Like us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/bookwish.

Watch a video preview of In Darfur

In Darfur is directly informed by playwright, Winter Miller’s own personal experience while accompanying New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof in Sudan. This play is accompanied by a handsome photo display and runs for 1 hour and 40 minutes

Visit the TimeLine Theatre Company’s website or call (773) 281-8463 for more details. Read more about critically acclaimed play “In Darfur” here.

Following each performances will be a symposium featuring various speakers.  Click Here for more information about the What the Heart Remembers and the schedule of speakers.

What the Heart Remembers: The Women and Children of Darfur will perform Nov. 16-20 at 8pm, and Nov. 20 and 21 at 3pm, in Theatre 2.  Advance tickets are $8 for students and seniors and $12 general admission; day-of-show tickets are $10 for students/seniors and $15 for general admission.  For information, call the College of The Arts box office at 813-974-2323, or visit online at http://www.arts.usf.edu/.

Speakers call for U.S. Leadership in Sudan (Photo: Martha Bixby, Save Darfur Coalition)

The welcome rally featured a webcast viewed by several hundred activists nationwide, a performance by Emmanuel Jal, music by Kevin Skolnick and Aaron Shneyer, and speeches by Simon Deng, Dr. Adam Abdel Gabar, Mark Feinman, Joe Madison, Rev. Jim Lafferty, Gloria White-Hammond, Tom Prichard, Michael Lupai, Niemat Ahmadi, Tragi Mustafa, Amin Ismail, Ahmat Nour, Mohamed Yahya, Charles Jacobs, Khalid Gerais, Faith McDonnell, and Erjok Mayor.

Although the speakers had many messages, several points were frequently emphasized and repeated.  Foremost was a call on President Obama and Congress to do more for the Sudanese people who have suffered for decades.  The speakers repeatedly thanked the American people and government for standing by South Sudan and Darfur in the past.  But they also pleaded with the U.S. not to abandon the Sudanese people in this time of great need, with a referendum on independence approaching quickly and the potential of renewed war on the horizon.

Speakers highlighted the risks and urgency of the upcoming referendum by citing short timelines, outstanding issues, and warning statements by policymakers around the world. They stressed the need for U.S. leadership, free and fair referenda, and human rights throughout Sudan.

Emmanuel Jal performs (Photo: Martha Bixby, Save Darfur Coalition)

Finally, many speakers pointed out that the Sudan Freedom Walk and similar rallies now include members from all of the marginalized groups in Sudan.  The unity between these groups demonstrates a powerful concept: Sudan’s people are tired of marginalization by the north, and they are willing to lay aside decades of differences and conflicts to unite for a Sudan that is free from slavery, genocide, and injustice.

Closing the rally was former child soldier Emmanuel Jal, who spreads awareness of the conflict in Sudan through his music.  Emmanuel told his story as a child soldier, called on President Obama to do more for Sudan, and sang about the problems his people face.  Before his last song, Emmanuel stated that the Rwandan genocide may have been avoided if enough people in the world had raised their voices.  At the end of his statements, he urged the American public to act: “Now is the time where we could call, send texts, send emails…let them know about what is happening in Sudan now.”

In 2008, members of I-ACT traveled to camps in Darfur with some special messages for the children there. A group of American elementary school students had drawn messages of hope and peace to show the children of Darfur how much they cared about them. Upon seeing these, some of the Darfuri children began drawing their own messages, which tell their stories of being forced from their homes and villages. I-ACT collected these drawings and brought them back to the United States. They are now part of I-ACT’s multimedia exhibit entitled “MY HOME: A Walk Through Children’s Memories of Darfur”.  MY HOME will launch in Los Angeles on September 19^th as part of the Global Day for Sudan event, co-sponsored by I-ACT and Jewish World Watch.

To find out more about the exhibit and the launch event visit the MY HOME page on our Creative Community.

Mitch Lewis’ Darfur Legacy

Mitch has shared the images of a few of his recently completed pieces from his Darfur Legacy collection. This summer, the works in this collection were featured in an art show about Darfur, held at the Bank of the Arts Gallery in New Bern, North Carolina. We were pleased to honor Mitch at the opening reception of the exhibit by presenting him with our Darfur Hero award for July 2010.  In addition to the new photos, we have also uploaded a new video featuring an interview with Mitch and footage from the Darfur Legacy exhibit.

To see Mitch’s new sculptures visit his creative Community page.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Enough Project has launched an exciting campaign aimed directly at these moments.

Picture posted on Amazon.com

The campaign is being launched in conjunction with a new book released by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast, entitled The Enough Moment. The stories of activists, both famous and obscure, are found inside. But while the pages of a book are limited, the stories of activists are endless.  Through video, picture, or text submission the Enough Project has asked for “Enough Moments” from any and every activist, to be compiled in an interactive wall.

In the blink of an eye, things can change forever. When individuals across this country and across the world blinked, they saw the suffering people of Sudan and other parts of Africa, homeless, diseased, attacked, alone. These individuals decided to change, dedicating their time to advocating for peace and justice in a continent often forgotten. These special moments, these unique blinks are being recorded by the Enough Project. Participate in this special campaign, share your own “Enough Moment”, and find inspiration from others who, like you, are dedicated to Sudan, to Congo, to human rights.

For some time now, artists have been contacting Save Darfur, eager to tell us about the projects they’ve undertaken to express their feelings on the grave situation in Sudan and inform others about the crisis taking place. We were not only impressed by these individuals’ passion, but also by their many talents, and we knew that we needed to find a way to put their talents and passion to good use.  The question was, how? In many ways, the arts fell outside the realm of the more traditional activist activities that Save Darfur Coalition usually participated in and promoted, so we had to take a look at the larger meaning of activism.

At its root, activism is about educating and inspiring yourself and others to create the changes you desire to see in the world. There are no set guidelines on exactly what this entails, on who can be involved, or on how to accomplish it. It’s left up to each individual activist to examine the unique talents and tools they have at their disposal. So while some individuals focus on writing letters to the editor, or lobbying their representative, or even holding rallies, others have turned to visual, written and performing arts to get their message out

In order to provide a creative outlet for these artistic activist endeavors, we created a space where we can showcase artists’ abilities and their messages. Our Creative Community will serve as a forum to display the poetry, music, art, theater, dance, multimedia, and film projects that artists have created to raise awareness of or to educate others about the conflict in Sudan. It is our hope that these works of art will serve to inspire and engage not only our current activists, but also a new constituency that’s dedicated to utilizing art as a vehicle of change.

If you have a piece of art you would like to contribute or if you would like to receive e-mail updates on the Creative Community, please email creativecommunity@savedarfur.org. Be sure to include your project content and a few sentences about your background and what inspired you to create your work. Unfortunately, for space purposes, we will not be able to include all submissions. We hope to hear from you soon!