STANDFast

December third is STANDFast Day. On December third, give up a luxury item - maybe your morning Starbucks Latte or a movie ticket - and donate to the cause of civilian protection in Burma and Darfur. As you may or may not know, there are currently genocides happening in Burma and Darfur. People are getting killed every single day. But you can do your part by donating towards civilian protection during STANDFast.

STANDFast is allowing you to help these civillians by donation. For $2.56, you can protect one Darfuri woman or girl from being raped for a week by providing her with a donkey. While in the refugee camps, these women are safe. But the mothers of Darfuri families often sacrifice themselves for their family. In the fefuge camp, food is provided. As firewood is needed to cook and feed their family, Darfuri women often volunteer themselves to collect firewood, as the children are too young and the men would almost certainly be killed. The women would go out to collect firewood and often have to walk long distances. When they are exposed, they are almost definitely going to be raped. STANDFast is strengthening the firewood patrols so that the Darfuri women can collect firewood in safety. As the patrols only come on certain days the woman will need a donkey to collect enough firewood to last till the next patrol date, instead of only a handful of firewood which will not last long enough. If you're feeling more generous, $4.49 can provide one Darfuri woman with a donkey cart so that she can collect more firewood/collect firewood for more people and that would last for a few days, so that they would need to go to collect firewood less often and spend more time witrh their family. After all, these women's intention when risking themselves collecting firewood is to spend more time with their family, feeding them so they would not starve and collecting firewood instead of their husbands so they would not get killed. The girls who volunteer to collect firewood wants to protect their fathers or brothers.

You can help in Burma too. STANDFast is incoporating a radio warning system into the villages of Burma. This way the villages will be able to warn each other of attacks so that other villages will have time to protect themselves from the enemies. $4.25 can provide five minutes of satellite phone coverage to communicate urgent warnings or upload images of an attack in eastern Burma.$27 can cover the costs of protecting one household in eastern Burma via the civilian radio network.

Every cent matters. If you are not allowed to donate, you can organize an event or spread the word =] For example, you can have a free movie screening in your house and charge $4 for popcorn. If eleven people show up, you already protected around ten Darfuri woman. More information about hosting fundraising events can be found here and here. If fundraising is too much of a hassle, spread the word by getting some attention from the media. Tips can be found here.

I am going to say here I am not practicing what I am preaching >_> Because my parents are not very, er, supportive of STANDFast, I can't hold an event or even donate myself as I don't have checks or credit cards. But please, if you can, donate. I know money is not equivalant to care and concern for genocide victims and never will, and you may think that physical help may help them better, but the problem is money is always an issue. Civillian protection comes at a cost - paying for the technology or manpower to help the victims. Sometimes money is all we can give them. But money could mean a lot.

Imagine you are a Darfuri woman. Days pass by and the genocide has not stopped, and you are losing faith. You are dreading the thought of having to collect firewood again, but when you look at your children, your brothers, you male relatives and think of them, you have courage again to collect firewood to feed them, or they will die. You want to spend more time with them. With genocide, you are not sure if you can even see them tomorrow. And then suddenly, you are given a donkey and people to protect you as you go and collect firewood. When you ask where did the donkey came from, they tell you it is from people's donations.

The Darfuri woman is going to go "You mean people care about me? They are donating for me? They are giving money to me so I can collect firewood for my family? They care to donate so that my family will not get hungry?". It is going to give her strength to fight on, to continue living on, to give her faith again that there is good in the world. And that could mean a lot. The few dollars you donate can go for a long way. This is the power of your donation. You can give someone hope again by simply giving up a movie ticket or another luxury item.

So if you wish to donate, click here. There are two ways, either online or sending in a check. Hope you will be able to give to such a good cause and have a nice day =]

***All the money listed above is in US currency.

Sneak peek for tomorrow: Mumbai attacks