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About a month ago I wrote a guest post on ZenHabits about “Stepping Outside of Your Comfort Zone and Moving Beyond Fear.” In the article I discussed an online humanitarian organization that I have been thinking about starting, and some factors that have been holding me back.

Some background information:
The general plan that I had in mind for the humanitarian organization would have entailed a two-phase implementation process. The first phase of implementation was going to involve training for a triathlon and using my preparation efforts as way to help raise awareness and funds. All of the proceeds were going to go toward assisting refugee orphans that have been internally displaced due to genocide, or who have been affected by military conflict within their country.

The “training” for awareness and fundraising model has been quite successful for such causes as, breast cancer, leukemia, and arthritis but it has not been implemented to assist with humanitarian issues. The first phase organization was going to be named ‘triforhumanity.com’ but unfortunately I have been sidetracked due too a recurring knee injury.

Upon successful completion of the initial stage, the second phase of implementation that I had planned was to spawn a much larger, more sustainable, online, humanitarian site called ‘trainforhumanity.com.’ The new site trainforhumanity was to be a place where people who were training for any type of endurance activity (marathons, mountain climbing, triathlons, etc) could create an account and blog about their training activities while at the same time raise funds and awareness for some pre-selected, (locally run) humanitarian initiatives.

Because my full-blown online humanitarian organization has been put on hold for the near term I did not want to completely stall my efforts to try and help (at least a little) support various causes.

Essentially, what I have decided to do is write about a humanitarian or social issue on this site every Friday. Even though I do not currently have a huge readership, I do get enough monthly visitors to merit the efforts to try and raise awareness.

Quite simply, I hope to bring some additional attention to humanitarian and social causes.

The first humanitarian topic for today’s Friday series will be the current crisis in Darfur. Please note, I am not an expert on this issue, I am just trying to highlight some resources that are out there, and to get people to move beyond apathy.

A few months ago I read a very good book entitled, “Darfur Diaries – Stories of Survival.” If you are interested in this issue from a local Darfurian standpoint I highly recommend this as a resource. The back cover states:

“After years of oppression, the Sudan Liberation Army in Darfur took up arms against the Sudanese government in February of 2003. The government and allied militias answered the rebellion with mass murder, rape, and the wholesale destruction of villages and livelihood. Millions of people were displaced, and hundreds of thousands killed.

In November of 2004, three independent filmmakers traveled to eastern Chad and crept across the border into Darfur. Improvising as they went, they spoke with dozens of Darfurians, learning about their history, hopes, fears, and the resilience and tragedy of their everyday lives.”

Five Things You Should Know About the Crisis In Darfur:

1. Darfur is geographically located in the far western part of Sudan. Bordering this area is Libya to the north, Chad to the West, and Central African Republic to the Southwest. The Dar Fur has a land area of about 114,000 square miles (about the size of Texas) with varied climate ranging from desert and semi arid in the north to rich savanna lands in the South (source: http://www.dpado.org/aboutdarfur.php).

2. More than 2.5 million people have been internally displaced.

3. Who are the victims and the attackers? The victims come mostly from ethnic groups and tribes that identify themselves as non-Arab, while the attackers come mostly from ethnic groups that identify themselves as Arab. The attackers are mostly government forces and their militia, called the Janjaweed (“devil on a horse” in Arabic), though recently non-Arab rebel groups have been attacking villages in areas controlled by other rebel groups. The victims in Darfur are Muslim, as are the attackers (source: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org).

4. Press Freedom and Human Rights Defenders Journalists and human rights defenders: Continued to suffer harassment, arrest and detention without charge, and other forms of intimidation, mainly from Sudanese security forces in Darfur and Khartoum. At least 15 international and Sudanese journalists were arrested and detained in 2006, and many more faced harassment, beatings, and arbitrary bureaucratic restrictions, particularly vis-à-vis efforts to travel to and report on the situation in Darfur and other sensitive issues (source: http://www.hrw.org/).

5. The United Nations (UN) estimates that the conflict has left as many as 450,000 dead from violence and disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict). Please note, it was awfully difficult to find an accurate figure and if you know of a better source let me know via the comments.

If you would like to help there is a very good organization that is run locally by Darfurians for Darfurians called Darfur Peace and Development and I recommend you have a look at their projects page.