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Remembering the Plight of Sudan’s Survivors on Refugee Day

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Remembering the Plight of Sudan’s Survivors on Refugee Day

Posted by Enough Team on June 15, 2010

Remembering the Plight of Sudan’s Survivors on Refugee Day

Worldwide, 41.2 million people have been forced from their homes by conflict. Over 5 million of those people are from Sudan. 

Millions of Sudanese still live in camps in Sudan or just across the border in Chad, Kenya, and other neighboring countries. But it’s estimated that since 1975, over 22,000 Sudanese have joined the approximately 2.5 million refugees from all over the world who live in the United States.

For years, activists – Sudanese and American – have advocated for peace in Sudan. This year, in honor of World Refugee Day, members of the Sudan advocacy community will sit down and share a meal together, to spend time learning about each other through conversation and food.

Join the Genocide Intervention Network and the Save Darfur Coalition on or around World Refugee Day this Sunday, June 20, to meet with members of the Sudanese diaspora, refugees, and activists who live in your community. There are already more than 80 meet-ups organized around the world.

Come together for a meal and share your stories. Learn what you can do together to advocate to improve the conditions in which many refugee communities live.

Here in Washington, D.C., we’ll be sharing a meal at the Save Darfur Coalition offices. Everyone will bring a dish that’s “traditional” for them – so we’re making Shoo Fly Pie, a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch food, and Nyaba, a traditional southern Sudanese dish. 

We know these types of events bring individuals and communities closer. Jimmy’s group, Voices for Sudan, has organized a couple of meal events for Sudanese and American friends working on Sudan together. Through these events new ideas and new energy have emerged. 

We hope you’ll take some time this weekend to share a meal, a story, or an opportunity for action. Sign up to attend or host a World Refugee Day potluck or event in your area. And please let us know how it goes!

 

Jimmy Mulla is the president of the U.S.-based Voices for Sudan. He moved to the United States in 1996 from Egypt. Martha Heinemann Bixby is the director of campaigns and outreach at the Save Darfur Coalition in Washington, D.C.