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Saving Darfur, Multiple Steps at a Time
A 2006 rally on the Mall organized by the Save Darfur Coalition attracted thousands, including Amer Makol.
(Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
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"These advocacy organizations play a good role in keeping American citizens informed of some issues that aren't always on the nightly news," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House national security council. "The administration listens and speaks regularly to Save Darfur and other groups."
Bush's top diplomat dealing with Sudan praised the coalition's ability to shine a light on the problem. "The Save Darfur Coalition has kept this issue in the news media and before the public and has focused the issue in a way that hasn't happened in foreign relations maybe since the South Africa anti-apartheid movement," said Andrew S. Natsios, Bush's special envoy for Sudan.
The coalition does have some critics. De Waal, a program director at the Social Science Research Council, said the group should emphasize peace negotiations rather than intervention.
Save Darfur's members do not agree. "We've been very effective in educating a large number of people and mobilizing a significant constituency concerned about the genocide that is willing to take targeted action to get our government to change their policy," said Ruth W. Messinger, executive director of the American Jewish World Service.
In January 2006, the coalition launched the Million Voices for Darfur campaign to deliver 1 million hand-written and electronic postcards to Bush and Congress demanding that they take stronger measures to end violence. By June, the coalition held an event in the Capitol with then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) who together signed the millionth postcard.
That spring, the coalition organized "Save Darfur: Rally to End Genocide" on the Mall that it says was attended by nearly 50,000 people. It was accompanied by more than 20 events around the country that together received extensive TV coverage, with more than 800 stories broadcast in the United States and Canada, according to the coalition.
In September, activists staged 57 events in 41 countries on six continents -- from London to Kigali, Rwanda -- which the coalition dubbed the Global Day for Darfur.
More events and advertising campaigns are planned. "There is no dancing in the end zone until the genocide has ended," said M. Allyn Brooks-LaSure, a Save Darfur spokesman.
