Train for Humanity has been live and online for about five weeks now!
I am still amazed that we get two or three emails on a daily basis from prospective "everyday athletes" and we TRULY appreciate all of the support and kindness that we have received from the larger blogging and social media community.
Considering we created and launched this initiative from scratch and have promoted only with social media, we are quite pleased with the site’s traffic. To date, Train for Humanity has had just about 22,000 pageviews and we have raised $1,200.
Darfur - Latest News
The latest news from Darfur is not promising, in fact, the UN is reporting:
"Recent violence in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region has left at least 40,000 civilians displaced in the last two months alone."
To put things into perspective, 2.5 million Darfuri have already been displaced, which is just about equivalent to the population of Chicago. What would political leaders and the global community do if the (whole) population of Chicago had to suddenly flee because of horrific violence?
Our Training Update - for the past week
Mark Hayward
Mon 10/13: swim 1/2hour; run 5miles
Tue 10/14: Hurricane Omar prep (no workout) Wed 10/15: Hurricane Omar due to hit (no workout)
Thu 10/16: Hurricane Omar MISSED but had to breakdown shutters (no workout)
Fri 10/17: ran 5miles
Sat 10/18: ran 5miles
Dan Clements
Mon 10/13: 5k run
Tue 10/14: 10K bike
Wed 10/15: off
Thu 10/16: 5 k run
Fri 10/17: 18k run - my last long run before the race!
Sat 10/18: off
Leo Babauta
Mon 10/13: 7 miles
Tue 10/14: weights
Wed 10/15: 7 miles w/ 600m intervals
Sick rest of the week (missed a race I wanted to run!) I’m feeling a lot better now and should be running again this week.
Please Note: Dan Clements is running the Niagara Falls Half-Marathon THIS coming Sunday, October 26 for Train for Humanity. That’s 13 miles! If you would like to sponsorDan, Leo Babauta, who is training for the Honolulu Marathon, or Mark Hayward as he prepares for his first triathlon, the Miami Man Olympic Distance, we would truly appreciate your support. ALL of the monies will be going to Darfur Peace & Development. Finally, big thank you to Colleen Wainwright for her kind mention of Train for Humanity and to Mark Salinas for letting me guest post this week.
As many of you know, Wednesday, October 15 is Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is poverty.
Strangely enough, just the other day I learned via an email that Collis Ta’eed, co-founder of Blog Action Day, and I have something in common that helped to shape who we both are today.
Collis and I both lived in Papua New Guinea. And if you have read the story behind how Train for Humanity got its start, you will know, I was deeply affected by my time there.
The purpose of Blog Action Day is to get many voices focusing on the same topic and subject in order to help spread awareness and raise funds. I believe this year they have about 10,000 bloggers writing about poverty.
Though we are not at the same scale yet, Train for Humanity is grounded in the belief that many voices (athlete/bloggers) can have an impact when we join together collectively to get in shape and raise awareness for those who have been affected by genocide.
Poverty
Poverty can be defined as:
The deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. (source: wikipedia)
If you have spent anytime traveling, you soon come to realize that poverty is not the cause of death but the road that leads to it. However, please note, poverty is not just limited to developing nations. Every time I travel back to the U.S. I am struck by the sheer number of homeless people on the streets.
According to the United Nations, “About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes. This is one person every three and a half seconds. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.”
Poverty in Sudan & Darfur
Yesterday, I asked Susan Burgess-Lent, Program Director with Darfur Peace & Development, for some information regarding poverty and the current humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Here is how Susan replied:
Poverty is a big reason for the current crisis in Darfur. It is a kind of poverty so far beyond what most American know - and could have been radically altered 5 years ago if even 50% of the millions of dollars shunted into advocacy had been consistently redirected into programs on the ground that strengthened the health, education and ability of Darfuris chart a way forward.
Within Sudan, “Poverty is deeply entrenched and is largely rural. In 2002 some 20 million people were living below the poverty line of less than US$1 a day. About 19 million people — 85 per cent of the rural population — are estimated to be living in extreme poverty. Most of them struggle to feed themselves and their families and have little or no access to safe drinking water and health services. The United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index ranks Sudan 61st among the 77 least developed nations in the world.
More than two million have been displaced by the Darfur conflict alone. In addition, erosion, loss of soil fertility and damage to watersheds are affecting resources. Agricultural productivity is decreasing as a result of a lack of technological breakthroughs in rainfed agriculture, and food security and livelihoods are threatened as a result. Malnutrition, tuberculosis and malaria have become rampant. The World Health Organization estimates that 22 per cent of children in the South and Darfur are suffering from acute malnutrition, and the incidence of diarrhea in children may be as high as 45 per cent in southern Sudan.” (source: ruralpoverty.org)
How YOU Can Help
Sometimes when you read about poverty, or other tragic human conditions, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and do nothing to help or let apathy set in.
However, small actions MATTER and they can add up!
Here at Train for Humanity we realize that we will not end the crisis in Darfur, but in launching the project we felt it was time to move beyond pity and do something…Really, we are trying to put the ACTION into Blog Action Day.
Poverty might not exist in your hometown, but maybe it’s prevalent half an hour away from you. Or, maybe you would like to assist the impoverished in another country. Wherever you would like to place your efforts, please do so and someone just might be better off because of it.
The Train for Humanity athletes are still in training for their upcoming events, if you would like to sponsor one of us it is truly appreciated. Though, we also appreciate a blog post or Twitter message equally as much while we are still trying to grow our supporter base.
In closing, below I have included a video of just one of the projects that Darfur Peace & Development is currently working on if you have a second go ahead an view it. Together we CAN make a difference!
When we initially envisioned what types projects Train for Humanity would support through various humanitarian organizations, providing education and resources, especially to orphans, was very high on the list.
However, it never occurred to us to think that we might need to have our training efforts go toward helping to rebuild a school. Especially, one that was bombed, destroyed, and in which six school children were killed.
The Shegegkaro School was the first school built by the Darfur Peace & Development Organization and the following is a synopsis of an article written about the bombing by Eric Reeves:
On May 4, at about 4 p.m., a school was bombed in the village of Shegeg Karo in North Darfur; one classroom was destroyed, killing six students and injuring others. The village marketplace was also bombed, killing several people and destroying most of the shops in this vestige of a shattered agricultural economy.
Who are the victims of this international cowardice? Who suffers when the world refuses to demand justice of those who would deliberately kill children? Let’s at least grant the dignity of names to the victims of this most recent barbarism:
Fatima Suleiman Adam Omar, 3rd grade, 10 years old
Fatima Ahmad Bashir, 2nd grade, 8 years old
Mubarak Mohammed Ahmad, 3rd grade, 10 years old
Yusuf Adam Hamid, kindergarten, 5 years old
Munira Suleiman Adam, 2nd grade, 7 years old
Adam Ahmad Yusuf, 4th grade, 11 years old
The whole world should respond vigorously to a nation that barbarously bombs kindergartners such as Yusuf Adam Hamid. Instead, we lamely bow in deference to Sudan’s “national sovereignty.” Do we have the courage to accept the stark implications of our refusal to hold accountable those responsible for his death? The answer is painfully, disgracefully obvious.
We would really like to be able to provide DPDO with $5,000 at the end of phase one to help reconstruct the school building and we feel that is an achievable goal.
If you would like to sponsor either Leo Babauta, who is training for the Honolulu Marathon, Dan Clements who is getting ready for the Niagara Falls Half-Marathon, or Mark Hayward as he prepares for his first triathlon, the Miami Man Olympic Distance, then we would truly appreciate your support. ALL of the monies will be going to Darfur Peace & Development.
Our Training Update (for the past week)
Dan Clements
Mon 9/29: 5K run
Wed 10/1: 7K run
Fri 10/3: 12K run
Sun 10/5: Our family did a 5K race to raise money for breast cancer research. This was Eve’s first race - she’s 7!
Leo Babauta
Mon 9/29: 9 miles w/ 4 miles @ LT pace
Tue 9/30: yardwork & weights
Wed 10/1: 12 miles
Thu 10/2: yardwork & weights
Fri 10/3: 20 mile long run
Rested on the weekend
Mark Hayward
Mon 9/29: brick workout bike – 10 miles then right into run – 5 miles
Tue 9/30: bike 15 miles
Wed 10/1: Off
Thu 10/2: swim speed work 30min; bike 15 miles; run 5 miles
Fri 10/3: swim 40min; bike – easy five miles; run 4 miles race pace
Rested on the weekend
Blog Action Day Wednesday, October 15th
Times are tough. If you don’t have a spare $1.00, $5.00, or $10.00 to sponsor us that is perfectly understandable, even in the best of economic times. However, Blog Action Day, which is next week, is focusing on poverty this year. Train for Humanity is comprised of bloggers putting the ACTION into Blog Action Day.
Poverty is one of the underlying causes of what is happening in Darfur. If you believe in what Train for Humanity and Blog Action Day are trying to do, you can still have an impact. PLEASE send out a mention TODAY on Twitter (or your favorite social media network) about this post and remember to include Train for Humanity in your Blog Action Day blog post.
The time that you spent here today at Train for Humanity is truly appreciated because without *you* we can’t continue to help spread awareness and raise funds.
After five and a half years of genocidal predations in Darfur, it may appear that nothing is being done to end the crisis. This would be a correct assumption, both in terms of political response and in terms of media coverage.
Recent major developments include the first indictment of a sitting president (Sudan’s Omer Bashir) on crimes against humanity, a coup attempt in Khartoum, the murder by government forces of at least 37 civilians in Darfur’s largest camp for Internally Displaced Persons, and the renewed bombing of villages in North Darfur. Where but on BBC can you see this news in America?
The Government of Sudan has tried to buy inroads into US policy with an offer of oil concessions in Darfur. The shooting match has begun over whether it would be a good idea to forget about Bashir’s indictment for the time being – that it somehow interferes with the imaginary peace process.
After a promise of 26,000 peacekeepers, barely 9,000 are deployed in Darfur. They have a lot of trouble getting around because the world’s military powers were not able to spare more than three helicopters. Despite the peacekeepers’ management change from African Union to UN, there has been no improvement on the ground in security and protection. It is, in fact, deteriorating.
Meanwhile, a lot of people and organizations are dug in with comfortable incomes, or a cause celebre, as long as the conflict continues.
Too many journalists remain uninformed of the momentous implications — for many global issues — of the Darfur crisis. They fail to recognize the pieces of a vast, complex cautionary tale for our time, playing out in lives needlessly lost. The few journalists who do see “breaking news” in Darfur often can’t get it past their producers or editors.
External Aid
The US government has provided $3 billion dollars in aid to Darfur since 2004, much of it in donated food staples. One result is nearly 3 million Darfuris who will be “food-aid dependent” for several years.
Many countries funnel their relief funds through a UN-controlled pipeline known as the Common Humanitarian Fund. In 2008, the CHF distributed nearly $30 million for programs in Darfur. Only $50,000 - just .2% - went to Darfuri organizations. The UN‘s agencies and major INGOs (International Non-Governmental Organizations) like CARE and Save the Children took the lion’s share. After 5 years, “capacity building” within indigenous organization is still a myth.
In practice, Darfuri organizations working shoulder to shoulder with their international counterparts are often treated like backward outsiders in their own country.
In their September situation report, the U.S. Agency for International Development USAID writes “ …partners have noted problematic indicators and signs of reduced coping mechanisms in affected communities, including increased food prices, decreased amounts of food in markets, and an increase in day laborers trying to earn money to buy food.”
The Sudanese are supremely adaptable and inventive people. Consider that it’s taken a full five years to wear them to a desolate wash of humanity. One wonders how much the Darfuris must endure before they are irretrievably broken. This end would suit perfectly the desires of Sudan’s ruling regime.
A recent posting of a video of DPDO’s Schools of Peace brought this response:
“For pete’s sake somebody needs to help Darfur.”
Of course, that “somebody” should well be the writer — and anyone who cares that fellow human beings are being slaughtered, raped and left homeless over a real estate dispute, an ideologically motivated land grab by greedy men with no interest in governing beyond amassing power and personal wealth.
What to do?
Effective programs have been launched by Darfuri humanitarian organizations. This is where the best response can be directed. Strengthening Darfuri leadership and organizations strengthens the health, education and livelihoods of families - the heart of the culture. Peace can come only from this.
If the situation were reversed – if you lived under a tarp drinking dirty water, on a 1500 calorie/day diet (if that), with no defense against marauding militia, you’d want a few committed helpers on your side while you set things right. Individually and collectively, we have to be those helpers.
We don’t have the luxury of claiming compassion-fatigue over Darfur. Time runs short for the survivors.
Susan Burgess-Lent is Program Director of Darfur Peace and Development Organization (DPDO), a Darfuri-led non-profit that supports fifteen elementary schools, a women’s center, and solar cooker training in Darfur camps and towns. She can be reached at Susan@DarfurPeace.org
October 21st, 2008
by Mark Hayward
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