About Us
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What is Dear Sudan?
A community is starving.
You never imagined it could happen. Everyone in your community
is starving to death. You’ve almost lost hope.
Then a neighboring city sends enough food to feed
everyone for one day. Another town offers to feed everyone
for a second day. Another gives enough food for a third
day. Soon, nearby towns and cities provide enough
food to save your hometown from disaster.
The Dear Sudan community.
Our towns and cities may be thousands of miles from
Sudan where violence, hunger and disease are devastating
millions of innocent lives. But our hearts can erase
this distance in a moment. Our compassion can create
a future for uprooted people in Darfur, Sudan – one community and
one day at a time.
Feeding a community.
The crisis in Sudan is overwhelming. It is painful to see images of victims
of hunger and violence. What can we do? One way to confront
the unfolding tragedy in Sudan is to work together as communities. By organizing
a community-wide campaign, your town or city can feed for one day the number
of Sudanese refugees equivalent to its population. Each Sudanese refugee
requires only 16 cents per day for nutritional food provided through a
program supported by Church World Service. You can feed a community.
Communities of compassion.
Dear Sudan shows that, despite the distance separating
us from Sudan, we are one community. It demonstrates the power
of communities to transform tragedy into hope. Dear Sudan is
a network of communities of compassion. As the Dear Sudan network
grows, we can help save thousands of communities from annhililation.
We can help feed Sudanese families uprooted by violence. We
can join the international cry to end the genocide in Darfur.
Join Dear Sudan.
Please join us. Sign your community’s name to the
letter at the bottom of this page and launch a Dear Sudan
campaign in your community.
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How did it start?
It began in Petaluma, California as "Dear Sudan, Love Petaluma," a
local interfaith campaign to support humanitarian relief in
the Darfur region of Sudan. The goal: raise enough money
to feed 55,000 refugees for one day--equal to the population
of Petaluma. Since each Sudanese refugee requires only 16
cents per day for food provided through a program supported
by Church World Service, the goal was $8,800.
The "Dear Sudan, Love Petaluma," campaign surpassed this goal, raising over $10,000
in 2004! These funds were sent directly to Church World Service, meaning that
65,000 displaced Sudanese have food for one more day.
Also, an ad hoc group of Petaluma residents led by a wide range of interfaith
clergy and laypersons also attempted to raise awareness about the 2.5 million
uprooted Sudanese, seeking to prompt urgent action by individual citizens
and governments alike to stop the genocide.
From this successful venture, a national effort has arisen, endorsed and supported
by Church World Service and its member churches, in which congregations and communities
are encouraged to use this model to assist the suffering people of Sudan through
fundraising, education, and advocacy. |
Dear Sudan,
..... We see your suffering,
dying people. We refuse to turn away from genocide.
We care enough to feed ____________ refugees in Sudan
for one day. That is the population of our community.
We trust that other communities will do the same.
We are striving to ensure that Sudanese displaced
by violence will not have to die from starvation and
disease. We know what it is like to be mothers and
fathers, children and grandparents, friends and community.
We also know that even though you are far away, you
are like us, mothers and fathers, children and grandparents,
friends and community. We are making a modest contribution
so that you may live another day. You may never know
our names, and we may never know your names, but we
are one.
Love,
Anytown, USA |
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