Conflict Awareness Month: A Success!

Hello everyone,
Conflict Awareness Month was a huge success! Our events were well attended and we raised quite a lot of money in a short period of time for the Eastern Congo Initiative!

For pictures, please visit our website: http://www.smithstand.ning.com/ or facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=199338304909.

We are in the midst of finding out the total amount that we raised for the ECI (some money is being reimbursed so we are unsure of the exact total at the moment), so we will update our website and STAND group with more information. We also took many pictures of people with their Conflict Free Technology stickers and will soon be sending it to legislators and companies urging them to support conflict free technology.

As a first year organization, we were able to do a lot with limited funding. I hope that we can help to advise other new chapters with the difficulties that they will face, as we did. I am amazed by the dedication of our Executive Board members and our general members. They have committed an extensive amount of time and effort in order to make our events successful. I am also glad that we have increased our collaboration with local chapters, such as UMASS STAND, Amherst High School STAND, Williston High School STAND, and Northampton High School STAND. We'd like to give a special thanks to Northampton HS because without them, the Banyamulenge presentation wouldn't have been possible or so successful. Not only did they help with the funding, but they also helped with setup, publicity, etc. We are thankful that we could co-sponsor their event.

In other news, I've made contact with members of the Girifna movement!! I met with the Western Mass Darfur Coalition in March and discussed the current status of Darfur. We talked about what we would like to bring up in a conference call with Senator Brown, as well as what we'd like to state in a press release about the parallel between STAND's student activism and Sudan's student activism with the Girfina movement.

I learned about the Girifna movement for the first time in that meeting. The Girifna are student protestors that openly act against the Bashir government. They are located in Khartoum, Darfur, and another location. Although they haven't been murdered for protesting, they have been beaten and tortured. SmithSTAND has made personal contacts through the WMDC so that we will be able to send the materials that the Girifna need, after we fundraise for the materials. I have also made personal contact with one of the Girifna that is based in New York and will soon be Skyping with Nagi from Sudan.

For more information on the Girifna, visit: http://darfurwm.blogspot.com/. Interested in Skyping with them as well or fundraising for the Girifna? Contact me! I'd be happy to talk to you about it! Also, I uploaded an article by Dalia about the Girifna, so feel free to read it!

Alright, hope you're all enjoying the weather and break!
-Jamie, '11
Current Chair and Treasurer of SmithSTAND
jsulliva@smith.edu