[tsl/public good] Deconstructing Darfur Week 3 Wrap-Up
Workshop 5
The third week of "Deconstructing Darfur" took our exploration of activism on Darfur to a much deeper level. The "Deconstructing Darfur" team was joined by Catherine Wagner of the Save Darfur Coalition and Mohsin Mohi-Ud Din of Human Rights First to share their work and experiences in taking action to help the people of Sudan.
Catherine joined us via Skype from Washington, D.C. where she is the Student Outreach Coordinator for Save Darfur's Dollars For Darfur program. Dollars for Darfur is a national campaign that harnesses the power and energy of young people to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The campaign is run by students with administrative support from the Save Darfur Coalition (http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/dfd/). Catherine shared with the group types of ways high school students can help take action from fundraising to letter writing campaigns. We also learned about the mission of the Save Darfur Coalition and their efforts to public raise awareness around what is going on in Darfur. Save Darfur Coalition is an NGO that does political advocacy and has grown into alliance of over 180 organizations with more than 1 million activists. One teen in "Deconstructing Darfur" even found out his school had been recognized for their participation in the Dollars For Darfur program! The students' questions ranged from fundraising techniques and effective places to donate funds to how best to target their peers in different age groups and settings to get involved.
Mohsin joined "Decontructing Darfur" from the Global Kids office in New York City.
He is the program assistant of the Crimes Against Humanity Program at the international human rights NGO, Human Rights First. Human Rights First works to promote laws and policies that advance universal rights and freedoms. Mohsin shared a video about China's arms sales to Sudan that can be viewed at http://www.stoparmstosudan.org/. The group then had a conversation with Mohsin about China's relationship with Sudan. I was impressed by their questions which included "Why direct trade with Sudan when they have not cooperated with the UN in the past?" and "When China provides 90% of small arms and weapons to Sudan, who is providing the other 10%?". We learned of a series of upcoming important dates that can be tied to activism campaigns. These included the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing this August, The G8 Summit taking place in July and the International Day of UN Peace keepers on May 29.
Today was a unique opportunity to bring together experts in the field with the group of teens participating in "Deconstructing Darfur", who themselves are scattered about North America and the UK. For me personally, today demonstrated the possibilities to connect and rally people around a cause to take action for public good.
Workshop 6
Today was the day where the "Deconstructing Darfur" team could put together all the pieces of knowledge and experience thus far to create their own means of public awareness around Darfur. From the GK guidelines to examples of Second Life activism, I was impressed at how each element was incorporated into the discussion around how these ten teens themselves will take action.
Following Mohsin's advice, they chose to create an event and an item to help raise awareness and funds for Darfur. After looking at numerous current events in the upcoming months, they chose to tie their event to the Olympics being held in Beijing, to help educate their peers on China's role in Sudan and its influence on the genocide in Darfur. To help develop the plan, the group conversed to answer the following questions:
What part of the story do you want it to tell?
How will this be communicated?
What are common images and messages that can help you communicate this?
Is it raising funds or raising awareness?
How will it raise money?
Where is the money going?
What influence will this have?
After these questions were answered collectively, the team divided up to start building their project.
As our time came to a close, we concluded by doing a finish the sentence activity, using "I am excited..."
"I am excited to help people learn about what we are learning about."
"I am excited to see how many teens come to our event."
"I am excited to plan an event for TSL."
Watch for more info in the upcoming week about the Deconstructing Darfur event that will be happening in June and we hope you can join us to in taking action to help end genocide in Darfur!
