On March 21st we Renewed House Resolution 636 Recognizing April as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month in Georgia at the Georgia State House Chambers

L-R:
Hannah Finnie-STAND Chapter President at Emory University; Representative Carter, Lindsay Hirsch- Assistant Director American Jewish Committee Regional Office; Representative Pak, Representative Henson, Melanie Nelkin-Chair GC2PG, Basmat Ahmed-United Sudanese and South Sudanese Communities Association, Resolution sponsor and House Minority Leader Abrams, House Speaker Ralston

Join us next year under the Gold Dome in 2014.  We hope for a year when there is no longer a need to renew resolutions that recognize April as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month.  In the meantime, thanks for your support

                  *To see all the March-April Events click our 2013 Events page

Nuba Community Rallies in Lafayette Park across from the White House in DC on December 14th to raise awareness about the ongoing atrocities in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.

The rally continues online.  Please click here to sign a petition to the UN Security Council, the African Union and the United States.  The rally included speeches from Sudanese leaders and leaders of advocacy organizations.                                                             “Today, we come together to reaffirm that silence is not an option”                              Mickey Jackson, Student Director for STAND (student-led movement to end mass atrocities).

Josh Rogin’s blog on TheCable this week included messaging from the letter to President Obama signed by GC2PG and 90 other signatories, including 76 U.S.-based organizations, 12 genocide scholars and other notable human rights advocates. Among those signing were Roger P. Winter, Eric Reeves, Gregory Stanton and Samuel Totten; Hawa Abdallah and Mia Farrow.

Copies of the letter were provided to Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Thomas Donilon, Senator Kerry, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Royce, Denis McDonough, Princeton Lyman, Samantha Power, Grant Harris, and for distribution to the members of the Sudan Caucus.

To read the complete text of the letter, please click here, share it with your networks and call your members of congress.  Click here to find contact information for your Georgia members of congress.

THE ASK:                                                                                                                           Our own GA Senator Johnny Isakson is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on African Affairs which is chaired by Chris Coons (D-DE) chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. We cannot expect our elected officials to act if they do not hear from their constituents.  Please call today and request that the Obama administration deliver humanitarian aid to starving Sudanese civilians even absent an agreement from the government of Sudan, instruct the National Security Council to accelerate decisions on protection of vulnerable populations from air attacks, and to seriously consider the destruction of Sudan’s offensive aerial assets and the imposition of a no-fly zone.

Four days after the letter was sent, on November 16th, the UN Security Council met and passed Resolution 2075 to renew the mandate for a peacekeeping force in Abyei.  Nothing, however, was said about the men, women and children living next door to Abyei who are being bombed, attacked and starved by the Government of Sudan.  How is that possible?

The people struggling to survive in the Nuba Mountains have an important message for a distracted dysfunctional world.  Please take just 5 minutes to watch, ”A Hidden Hunger:  Life in the Caves of the Nuba Mountains” and then click here to tell President Obama that this time around, he must lead the international community in formulating an effective and appropriate response to the humanitarian, security and governance crises in Sudan.

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GC2PG is joined by 86 other organizations in signing on to the November 11th letter to the UN Security Council urging decisive action to save lives.  Click here to read the text of the letter.

Specifically, the letter requests to immediately take the following steps:

• Define a strict timeline by which the government of Sudan must permit unfettered international humanitarian assistance into the states.
• Define specific consequences, per UNSC Resolution 2046, if aid is not flowing into the two states per the timeline, including taking all required measures to deliver aid, with or without the government’s consent.
• Provide civilian protection and unfettered international humanitarian aid in Darfur and outline specific consequences for the government if it impedes these efforts.

On November 10th, new leaders emerged from the Clarkston, GA community to form a chapter of the United Sudanese and South Sudanese Communities Association Henry Lejukole, Chairman of the USASSCA Steering Committee welcomes the Atlanta Chapter here in his welcome letter from Des Moines, Iowa

UNITED SUDANESE & SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATION (USASSCA)

Calling on all Sudanese communities from Sudan and South Sudan, the genocide prevention activist community and Georgians who are concerned about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

12:00PM

Sudan Christian Missionary Church

Pastor Gorashi Gangi

3895 Church Street

Clarkston, GA  30021

You are invited to participate in the creation of the USASSCA in Georgia.

USASSCA is an umbrella organization whose mission it is to bring together Sudanese with South Sudanese Communities in the United States Diaspora and facilitate cooperation and well being between them. The first conference was held in Des Moines, Iowa in August, where two members of the Georgia community attended.  They would like to share with you what they learned and introduce you to Rabbi David Kaufman who hosted the Des Moines conference and is also the founder of HelpNuba.org He will be the featured speaker for this inaugural partnership event with Pastor Gorashi Gangi.  Please share this invitation with anyone you think would be interested.

We would like to have representatives from the following eight regions:

Beja, Blue Nile, North and Central Sudan, Darfur, The Nuba Mountains of Sudan, Bahr El-Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile in South Sudan.

While USASSCA is not affiliated with any of the political or military groups, the American branches of the following have officially endorsed its formation:

• The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-SPLM
• The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement North-SPLM-N
• The Sudan Liberation Movement-SLM
• The Justice and Equality Movement-JEM
• The Beja Congress

Leaders from these Diaspora communities have also endorsed the formation of USASSCA:

• The Blue Nile Community Association of the USA
• The Association of the Sons of Masselit (Darfur)
• Beja, Darfur, and Nuba Mountain regions of Sudan
• Bar El-Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile regions of South Sudan

South Sudan’s Georgia diaspora invites you to their country’s first independence day anniversary commemoration on Saturday, July 21st in Clarkston, GA-the current home of many of the Lost Boys who landed in Georgia over 2 decades ago.  Stay tuned for details.

JULY 4TH LETTER OF THANKS FROM A FORMER LOST BOY OF SUDAN:

We would like to share and highlight a 4th of July letter written to us by Ngor Mayol, Former Lost Boy of South Sudan survivor, now US citizen and rescuer who is the catalyst behind Raising Sudan, a program to build a school in the village he left as a child.  He currently lives in Atlanta.

Good evening, America!   My name is Ngor Mayol, a former Lost Boy of Sudan living in the United States of America.  As citizens of this great nation, I want you to join me in a moment of silence from the bottom of my heart. Just think of what you know about America and let the world viewers hear from you as proud citizens.  If you don’t have any clue, just take a deep breath and continue with your moment of silence; then somebody who is knowledgeable about the history of America will be able to give you some simple ways in which you might be able to understand the beauty of America. For example, America is the land of freedom, the land of many opportunities, the land of pride, the land of liberty, the land of patriotism, and the land of diversity, the great melting pot. Therefore, it is our heartfelt responsibility to be proud on this July 4th as an individual and as a nation.  Also, this is the day we should remember all of the Americans who have lost their lives and especially the families and friends who lost their loved ones at war for the sacrifices they gave with their own lives to fight for the freedom of

South Sudanese woman carrying building material for her home

mankind. Finally, I want to end by saying “Happy July 4^th” to all of your family and friends wherever they might be.  Again too, don’t forget to thank all of our fellow American citizens in uniform who are overseas and around the world for the great sacrifices that they have made to fight the war on terror and for the sake of freedom which makes our flag fly high on earth. Finally, take a look at the lady in this picture.  She shows how hard work and the strong love of heart can bring about American dreams!!!!!!

Children hiding in caves to protect themselves from Sudan Armed Forces’ bombs

GC2PG URGES YOU TO CALL THE GENOCIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE AND ASK YOUR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO SUPPORT HR 4169, THE SUDAN PEACE, SECURITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2012.

June 6th marked the one year anniversary of the mass atrocities in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan committed by the government on it’s own civilians.  GC2PG and other concerned advocacy organizations signed a letter (full text of letter) urging the UN Security Council to “follow through with severe sanctions and other powerful consequences if the Government of Sudan does not allow immediate access for humanitarian aid” into the affected populations.  This short film: Nuba 2012: A Return to Genocide describes the conflict.

U.S. House Resolution 4169 (HR4169)

CALL 1-800-GENOCIDE TO SUPPORT THE SUDAN PEACE, SECURITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2012 NOW

As of this post only Representatives John Lewis and Hank Johnson have signed on as co-sponsors in Georgia.  Please ask your Representative to join them.

Nick Kristof, New York Times Columnist reporting from the Nuba Mountains

APRIL IS NOW GENOCIDE PREVENTION MONTH IN GEORGIA

March 13th was an historic day under the Gold Dome in Atlanta.  Please read the details of the day here and the actual text of House Resolution 1830 here.  We encourage you to call and thank all House sponsors as well as State Senator Judson Hill for sponsoring the resolution in the Senate as well. 

JOIN US ON TUESDAY MARCH 13th

at The State Capital

Georgia State Legislators have invited us to the House and Senate Chambers when they  declare

April as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month in Georgia