Refugee children on the border between Chad and Darfur are consistently in need of educational supplies, and as Stauring has seen in his previous visits, extremely eager to read.  While books often seem like sensible donations, transporting them to isolated areas such as Chad and Darfur is often pricey and logistically difficult.  The i-ACT team recognized this challenge and decided to do something cutting edge about it.

Tomorrow, members of the i-ACT team will embark on “Expedition #10,” and depart for refugee camps on the Darfur-Chad border, bringing with them ten Kindle Wireless Reading Devices.  These devices have the capacity to hold thousands of books in English, French, and Arabic on one portable electronic instrument.  Using a solar-equipped computer system, previously installed by i-ACT at one of the two camps they plan to visit, the Kindles (capable of holding a charge for one month) can be recharged when necessary and will be housed in a school environment for safe-keeping. The Kindle’s lightweight, sturdy design, and its readability in light and darkness, makes it especially practical for such remote areas.

The viability of this rare project and its anticipated success lies in the cultivation of the deeply-rooted relationships between Stauring and the refugee community.  And, with nine visits under his belt, Stauring is well aware that there might be bumps along the way, but acknowledges that this longstanding relationship will allow the team to ‘fine tune the program’ and make adjustments on future visits.

Letter from Student (i-ACT)

Most importantly, i-ACT is invested to ensuring that refugees play a leading role in the project’s development.  The team plans to collaborate with the refugees to establish a library system that houses the e-Readers and serves as a space where refugees can easily access them.  Librarians will keep track of the most popular books so that i-ACT can return with similar ones on subsequent trips.

Looking beyond the coming weeks, Stauring and the rest of the team at i-ACT hope that this will be a lasting project and one that greatly contributes to the education and overall quality of life for young refugees.  As Stauring mentioned in a recent e-mail, “More than anything else, they [the refugee children] see education and reading as the key to their future” and these e-Readers will be one of the tools helping them reach their fullest potential.

i-ACT will start delivering the Kindles tomorrow (March 19th). You can follow the team’s journey as they post videos, blogs, and photos from the refugee camps.  They will capture the delivery of the Kindle e-Readers and share it at www.iactivism.org.

To learn more about the project please visit i-ACT’s project page at http://www.iactivism.org/2011/03/reading-project/.

We talked about how we felt this was an important thing to do, because if it was our mothers, or our grandmother, or us living in the camps struggling to provide for our family and always living in fear we would be very grateful that there was someone out there working so hard to help us.

Today, the Save Darfur Coalition honors one such leader, Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah.  Dr. Ahmed worked with survivors of violence and torture in Darfur, providing a safe space for women to speak about their experiences and with hope that their psychological and physical wounds could be healed.

To accompany our letters to Dr. Ahmed and the women and children of Darfur, my cousins and I drew things that made us happy – home, family, sports, our pets.

These are all things that we try never to take for granted, and for which we are especially grateful at this cold and gray time of year.  As we celebrated Thanksgiving, we realized how thankful we are not only for these things that make us happy and keep us safe, but that there are people out there dedicating and sometimes risking their lives to keep the women and children of Darfur happy and safe.  We wrote how much we hope that the women and children of Darfur soon have the opportunity to live in peace, without fear, and to enjoy these same simple but essential things that make us happy.

We hope you’ll join us today.  Write a letter to one of the 16 leaders in the fight against sexual violence in Sudan, or to one of your personal heroes in this effort.  Take a moment to tell the people on the front lines of this difficult cause how much their work means to you.  In this time of thanksgiving a simple “thanks” goes a long way.