Darfur is not a clothing company....part II

THIS is Darfur:
the basics:
1. Darfur is a region in western Sudan, in northern Africa.
2. Since 2003,due to fighting between the govt. of Sudan and rebel groups, up to 400,000 civilians have died.
3. Over 2 million people have been displaced(not able to remain to their homes) inside Darfur, or have become refugees outside of Darfur.
4. Thousands of villages in Darfur have been burned to the ground.

The politics of the situation are sometimes muddled and extremely difficult, and some people have said it is a war between the Arab govt. and the black ethnic Christians, but the main point is that regardless of why they are fighting, they should not be allowed to kill, rape, and traumatize hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process. Already labeled a genocide by the US and others, the Sudanese govt. has already publicly announced that it is "ethnically cleansing" the region, and has made repeated refusals to allow any peace keeping entities to enter the region, including dogged attempts by the UN.

This coming September, the only grass roots peace keeping body will pull out of Darfur, called the African Union, leaving no one to protect the civilians of Darfur until January of 2007 at the earliest. See the petition to SAVE DARFUR in my earlier posts on this blog, and the link to view it as well.

In response to this information, I have been doing what I can now for Darfur, every little bit helps, even if its just educating others about the situation. As I have said again and again, when I have asked my peers, clients,and friends one question: " If you knew that the Nazi holocaust or Rwandan genocide were happening today, would you do anything about it? Would you try and stop it?" their resounding response it "yes, of course" and I say : "well, it is happening, right now."

Want to help Darfur?
Keep posted here, contact me at: perennialgenerator@yahoo.com , I have plenty of websites to pass along.
Come support me at my awareness and fundraising event for Darfur and possible launch for OSMOSIS at the VA Holocaust Museum Nov. 12th.

many many thanks-

Darfur is not a clothing company....part I

So that is what I discovered June of this year, 2006, to my utter dismay. Being one of the typical numbed-by-too-much-information people, I had been getting sporadically and minimally educated on general refugee situations since 2004 when my friend Hilary asked me to donate a gift certificate from my shop for an auction she was having. I had no problem donating some time for it and missed going to her event called "Rock For Refuge", and didn't think to investigate further. 2005 She invited me to go to my 1st World Refugee Day opening ceremonies in DC, I was late and missed the press conference but met alot of interesting people and stayed for a viewing of Hotel Rwanda, which was followed by speaker Paul Rusesabagina who the film portrayed. I was deeply touched and vowed to get more informed. It was during 2004/2005 I remembered seeing a few celebrities here and there displayig tshirts that simply said "darfur" on them, which I thought odd but signed it off as yet another logo for another clothing company hollywood was embracing. Fast forward to May,2006. I was fervently researching refugee situations as I wanted to be prepared for this year's World Refugee Day preparations. I read Ms. Jolie's book on her refugee camp travels, started looking into the various websites from www.unhcr.org to www.theirc.org to amnesty's site and beyond. For some reason I did not focus on Darfur though until the main speaker at this year's opening ceremonies gently spoke of the problems still happening there, and that is when I realized my folly...Darfur is a place? I had been so swept up in getting to the ceremony and was thrilled that Hilary had invited me again even though it was "invite only" this year, and had completely swept by Darfur again. When I got home from the event, I went online and started to read.....

link to petition to SAVE DARFUR

howdy folks, here is a link to be able to view(and maybe print out?) our petition. Its circulating now, keep your eyes peeled!

darfur petition link

Petition to SAVE DARFUR!!!!!

Okay people, in an effort to begin awareness for Darfur we at OSMOSIS have lovingly crafted a petition for your use to help the people of Darfur, Sudan. What is Darfur? I will outline specifics in the next post. For now, I am focusing on getting the word out that doing something for this situation is as easy as signing you name. The petition consists of this:

WE, the undersigned, call on Congress to move forward with their efforts to enact HR 723 (Calling on the President to take immediate steps to help improve the security situation in Darfur, Sudan, with a specific emphasis on civilian protection.) As the May ceasefire has been largely unsuccessful at curtailing the violence, and the Sudanese government continues to fuel ethnic conflict--including murder and rape--the crisis continues to grow:

* Nearly ninety percent of the villages in Darfur have been burned.
* The death toll is now over 200,000, and may be as high as 400,000.
* Two million people are living in refugee camps.
* The Sudanese government continues to impede the flow of humanitarian aid.

With the planned withdrawal of the African Union in September (2006), and no further action expected from the United Nations until January(2007), the need for intervention by the United States has become imperative for the survival of the people of Darfur.

Would you like to help circulate and get signatures, or keep one available at your place of business to collect signatures? Email me at : perennialgenerator@yahoo.com , I'll bring it to you if you'd like!

A letter writing campaign is accompanying this effort which we are drafting now! There will be at least one petition available for signing at: Trademark Tattoo, 3125 W. Cary St., Richmond, VA 23221 (804)254-9006

OSMOSIS supports local organic community gardens in Richmond

The Richmond Community Garden Collective (RCGC) is looking to change the world through Organic Community Gardening. A growing number of individuals, neighborhoods, communities, organizations, institutions and govt's have formally collaborated in a growing collection of Organic Community Gardens throughout the Richmond Region, as the only way to achieve the full potential of this is organically! RCGC will act as an organizing,administrative, financial & reference entity for thecollection of Richmond organic gardens. They are searching to unite all elements of the Richmond Regional Community in an effort that will forever strengthen our community and our ability to help strengthen other communities around the world. Affiliated with VCU, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden among other prominent Richmond groups, RCGC is actively looking for volunteers to help them in various aspects of their endeavors! I will post contact information as it becomes available!

the kick off!

Greetings all! I finally got a virtual meeting place for people to keep tabs on what is happening with OSMOSIS, helping build community through grassroots efforts and word of mouth. This blog will be open to all topics, I will be updating on my current projects and all the friends I know with projects in motion. Let's do this! :-)