02/01/2018

Speak Up for the Women of Darfur!

Today, in honor of International Women’s Day, we would like to commemorate women from all around the world for their strength and bravery. But today, as we celebrate the resilience of women, their drive, and determination, we need to bring our attention to the plight of women in Darfur.

Women in Darfur are still facing an incredible challenge. For the last fourteen years, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been carrying out a genocidal attack in the region. His tactics include burning down villages, looting property, killing innocents, even using chemical weapons against a civilian population, and using rape as a weapon if war by systematically raping women and girls. As a result of the unrelenting attacks, over 3 million Darfuris were forced to leave their villages for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)and refugees camps located in Chad. Over 80% of these people are women and children, who live with limited access to humanitarian assistance, education, and protection.

The women of Darfur have been victim to systematic rape and sexual violence, and these tactics show no sign of stopping. Women in Darfur are bearing the burden of the genocide. Countless women and girls are subjected to brutal rape, humiliation, beating, starvation, and disease on a daily basis. Rape and sexual violence in Darfur are not mere byproducts of war. They are well-planned and deliberately orchestrated attacks intended to tear apart families, break down leadership structures and rip the fabric of society, leaving communities with physical and emotional scars. Rape and sexual violence are often unreported because many women fear that reporting will lead to either further harm by perpetrators or ostracization from their communities, meaning that often rape and sexual violence continue with total impunity.

The UN and the international community has done little to address the problem adequately. There has been no formal research into how widespread the problem is, and there is not adequate health care for victims. Proper healthcare is crucial to helping the physical and emotional wounds that rape leaves, as well as vital to stopping the spread of disease. Also, the lack of accountability only fuels and increase the crime. The perpetrators of this crime have not been brought to justice, and until there is, justice will have been denied to the women and girls in Darfur.

We must speak up and demand action! The international community has been warming relations with Sudan, despite the number of women and girls who are subjected to such a brutal crime. We must demand that the US stop enabling Sudan’s inhumane behavior. Please join us and use your voice to speak up for the women of Darfur!

• Share our statement on social media and use the hashtag #StopRapeInDarfur
• Donate to our organization to support our “Women Empowering Women” project to raise U$ 10,000 by the end of March.
• Organize a screening of our “Violence Against Women” video to educate more people. Contact us, and we will send you a link!
• Organize a fundraising event for DWAG. We will give you all the tools to help us reach our fundraising goals.
• Invite DWAG to speak at your school, congregation or community center to educate more people about the situation in Darfur and enable them to become a voice for women in Darfur.
• Join our Rapid Responders network and help us get a representative in each of the 50 states in the next 50 days.
• Write letters to your local or favorite media outlet and ask that they do more to cover the situation in Darfur.
• Call your congressman and demand the US stop rewarding a genocidal regime by lifting Sudan’s name from terrorist sponsor countries or normalizing relation

Thank you for joining us and for speaking up for women in Darfur
Your voice can make a difference