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Save Darfur, and a Call to Protect the Rights of Women and Children Everywhere

dec7.jpg December 8, 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Sudanese activist urges help for Darfur, by Brian Haas.

Dozens gather at church to learn about region's humanitarian crisis

Boca Raton

Niemat Ahmadi recalled being attacked in broad daylight in her hometown in western Sudan.

"A masked man grabbed my scarf from behind and started choking me," Ahmadi said. "I struggled with him. I screamed for help, but nobody did anything."

Ahmadi escaped her attacker. She escaped her village. And she escaped Darfur, after what she said were government-sponsored assassination attempts on her life in retaliation for her aiding women and children suffering there.

Ahmadi, a women's rights activist with the Save Darfur Coalition, spoke to about 50 people at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church on Sunday afternoon, imploring them to take action in light of an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations estimates more than 300,000 people from three ethnic groups in the region have been murdered by the Sudanese government and an allied militia known as the janjaweed. Nearly 3 million Sudanese were forced from their homes and live in refugee camps. In addition, women and girls are threatened daily by rape.

"The female went from being the most secure person in our society to the most vulnerable," Ahmadi said.

Rosanna Gatens, director of the Florida Atlantic University Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education, said that as the 60th anniversary of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights approaches Wednesday, not enough has been done to further its mission.

"We have not acted in a concerted way to stop the genocide in Darfur," Gatens said. "We not only hope and we not only pray, but we expect and demand that the genocide will stop now."

For information about the Save Darfur Coalition, go to www.savedarfur.org.

Brian Haas can be reached at bhaas@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6633 .

Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpdarfur1208pndec08,0,5008628.story

St. Gregory's Episcopal Church
100 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33432
Sunday, December 7, 2008, 2:00-3:30 PM.

the plight of Women and Children of the Globe?

  • 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights
  • Kids Who Care, directed by Joan Grande
  • Video on the Plight of Congolese Women
  • Darfuri Female Speaker
  • Interfaith Call to Action, Dr. Rosanna M. Gatens

    Our Pledge

    The opposite of love is indifference.
    We choose not to be silent.
    We choose love and compassion.

    The Save Darfur Coalition of South Palm Beach County is the local branch of a national interfaith alliance of more than 65 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human-rights groups united to raise awareness and mobilize efforts to help end the suffering in Darfur.

    We speak as a community of conscience, representing a diverse group of people in a call for social justice, united to raise awareness and mobilize efforts to help end the suffering in Darfur.

    Our mission: To educate and mobilize our community to help stop genocide.

    Reuters Alertnet Photo Gallery

    Save Darfur Coalition of South Palm Beach Co-Sponsors

    Dec 7,'08 (Sun) 2:00 pm. Save Darfur, and a Call to Protect the Rights of Women and Children Everywhere  —  map to St. Gregory's Episcopal Church ; click for flyer

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