Where your Donation Goes
Civilian Protection Program
The Genocide Intervention Network’s Civilian Protection Program has taken a unique approach to filling the long-time gap between humanitarian efforts and the physical protection of civilians. Our projects in Darfur work with Darfuri community leaders, displaced women and girls, local NGOs and the UN to protect people in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), where women are still at a high risk of rape/assault from militias every time they go out to collect firewood. Over the past year, GI-NET has made important contributions to improving firewood patrols, including offering support to the development of training and standards for FPUs (Formed Police Units) who will be deployed in Darfur to provide this essential service. GI-NET has also made the commitment in the past year to launch protection programs in eastern Burma, where the brutal military regime has been attacking innocent civilians and destroying villages for over 40 years. By creating a civilian radio network through which urgent warnings and distress signals may be sent, GI-NET will give civilians the tools they need to protect themselves against the unjust and unacceptable violence perpetrated by the government of Burma.
100 percent of donations made in the name of STANDFast starting December 3rd go to the Genocide Intervention Network’s Civilian Protection Program.
For more information on the Genocide Intervention Network's Civilian Protection Program and specific projects, visit http://genocideintervention.net/protection.
How can your STANDFast donation make a difference and protect civilians?
Your STANDFast donation to the Genocide Intervention Network’s (GI-Net) Civilian Protection program is important because it goes towards unique initiatives that provide protection to vulnerable individuals in Darfur and eastern Burma. See how your donations make an impact:
$2.56 can provide a woman with a donkey for one week to collect firewood (1).
Give up coffee for one day, help a mother cook safely for a week!
Because collecting firewood outside the camps in Darfur is a dangerous activity that leaves women exposed to rape and gender-based violence from militias, GI-Net has worked with people living in camps and a partner organization to come up with a plan to reduce vulnerability during firewood collection. A vital part of this is improving the effectiveness and frequency of firewood patrols. In addition, providing donkey-carts will allow women to collect enough firewood at once to last until the next firewood patrol, so they will not have to go out unprotected.
$4.25 can provide 5 minutes of satellite phone coverage to communicate urgent warnings or upload images of an attack in eastern Burma.
Give up a long distance call to a friend, help a village escape an attack!
Families in villages targeted by the Burmese government live in fear of frequent and violent attacks that threaten their lives and assets. Often warnings arrive too late, if at all, to allow community members enough time to escape, much less pack or bury assets that are vital to their wellbeing. GI-NET is working with a local partner to develop an early warning system that utilizes satellite phones and radios to provide enough warning before attacks occur to allow innocent civilians to escape from danger.
$27 can cover the costs of protecting one household in eastern Burma via the civilian radio network (2).
Gather your friends and skip a night out to help protect a Burmese family!
An effective radio network connecting at-risk villages can mean the difference between escape and the fatal outcomes of the government’s ethnically targeted attacks. GI-NET hopes to provide 200 radios to community members in 2009 as a vital component of the early warning system, and with your help we can!
Donations for STANDFast can be made online at: http://www.standnow.org/campaigns/standfast/donate or by check. All donations are tax deductible. If you prefer to make a donation by check, it should be made payable to Genocide Intervention Network, be clearly marked for "STANDFast" in the memo line, and mailed to the following address:
Genocide Intervention Network
Attn: STANDFast
1333 H Street NW, First Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
(1) Though donkeys and donkey carts should be serviceable for many years, we use the term of this project (6 months) as the time horizon. Each donkey costs roughly $200. Each donkey will benefit 3 women per week. Thus the price per beneficiary per week will be approximately $200/(26*3) = $2.56 for a donkey.
(2) Estimate derived from a total cost of $680 per radio ($500 for radio, solar charger, antenna, etc. plus $180 in other project implementation costs). Each village needs one radio and has approximately 25 households, resulting in an average costs of approximately $27 for each household.
