It’s official. The U.S. has decided who its next president will be.

The inauguration of a new president promises to provide new opportunities to bring protection and peace to the people of Darfur. Even better, these promises are supported by strong statements of commitment from President-elect Obama:

“I will make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority from Day One. It is a collective stain in our national and human conscience that the genocide in Sudan, now starting its sixth year, has gone on for far too long.” (April 2008) (more…)

The School of the Month for November is Homer Junior High School of Homer, New York!

The Humanitarian Club of Homer Junior High is a group of 8th grade students raising money for charities around the world. For the past two years they have focused on the Save Darfur Coalition.

Each year, before they begin fundraising, social studies teachers at Homer play the eight-minute video “The Promise” for their classes and discuss the situation in Darfur. The video touches many students and encourages them to help.

This year, the Humanitarian Club organized a school-wide Hat Day, when students can pay $1 to wear a hat in school (they are not allowed to normally). They also hosted a school dance, charging admission and donating all the money they collected. In addition to these events, the club sells green Save Darfur wristbands to raise awareness and funds.

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Nearly 70 members of Team Darfur competed in the recently completed 2008 Olympic Games. Team Darfur members won 17 medals and competed honorably on the field. While International Olympic Committee rules prevented them from making open statements about their support for the people of Darfur, Team Darfur athletes in Beijing and at home did what they could to ensure Darfur was a part of the 2008 Olympic dream.

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The buzz is building for this summer’s Olympics. There are many records set to be broken and many athletes will establish themselves as the future of their respective sports. However, some athletes have another thought in the back of their minds - the suffering men, women, and children in Darfur. Most of those athletes have joined with Team Darfur to raise awareness about Darfur and to encourage China, the Olympic host, and all nations of the world to take responsible actions to alleviate the suffering of so many Darfurians.
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Save Darfur. It’s a concept that sends people running to action, willing to volunteer time and money to do what it takes to save the people of Darfur from rape, murder and displacement. We have taken action, we have sent the messages to world leaders, we have raised the issue in our communities and we have built a movement more than a million strong. So why haven’t we yet saved Darfur?

At times, the victories of this movement seem few and far between. The violence continues and the peacekeeping force has yet to be deployed. The problems are deep and complex.

But amid the frustration, there are real victories. There are triumphs that are difficult to gauge, such as the impact of country-wide awareness of the genocide or the personal impression left on someone after taking action to help another person half way around the world. These small victories are often hard to recognize or even pin down. But sometimes, we can see them.

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