Students for Aid Initiative in Darfur

Students for Aid Initiative in Darfur (SAID) is a group of high school students working together with the goal of being able to help those suffering in Darfur and raise awareness of the crisis. Through our work, we hope to be able to inspire our peers to action. The Darfur crisis is the most significant human rights atrocity today, and the world’s lack of action will allow it to be seared into the pages of history as yet another one of humanity’s great mistakes only noticed in retrospect. However, change is never the work of a single individual, but that of many. Our group wants to be one of those architects of change and we are unwilling to stand by in the face of this mass injustice. Though we are just students, we still think that we can make a significant difference and will try as hard as we can to do so. Past efforts of ours have included a benefit concert held in June of 2008, which raised $513 and was attended by approximately 40-50 people. We have also sold Save Darfur wristbands and arranged for an assembly in our school with Dr. Jerry Ehrlich of Doctors Without Borders, who volunteered in the Kalma refugee camp. Members of our group are also working on two multimedia projects with a local orchestra, with the aim of informing the local community about the genocide. Our main project at present is a second benefit concert, entitled "Dream for Darfur", to be held 7-10 PM on June 12th at Central Valley Elementary, in Central Valley, Orange County, New York. The bands and artists playing include the Jeff Butta Band, the Holding Company, Kombat, and Dolphin Toys. It will feature genres ranging from rock and metal to jazz and hip hop. We hope to be able to raise awareness in our local community through this concert and to be able to generate funds to contribute to direct aid in Darfur. If anybody is interested and would like to know further details, please e-mail us at dreamfordarfur09@gmail.com or call (845)-492-1622. All attendees need to fill out visitor forms for the elementary school, so please let us know if you would like us to provide you with these.