According to Valentino Achak Deng, the subject of Dave Eggers’ book What is the What, and Dave Eggers, there are many things you can do to help the people of Sudan. Here are their suggestions.
- Write Your Senator or Representative. Experts and US politicians continue to tell them: write an actual, personalized letter (not an e-mail) to your government talking about the genocide in Darfur and the misconduct of the Sudanese government.
- Tell Washington that trading information for Darfur is unacceptable. There is speculation that because Khartoum has aided the US government in the War on Terror that Washington is hesitant to exert pressure on Sudan on the genocide in Darfur.
- Support organizations that support Sudan, including, but not limited to, Save the Children, Concern, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Crisis Group, and others.
- Support organizations lobbying for an end to genocide in Sudan, including: The Save Darfur Coalition, Genocide Intervention Network.
- Support the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. All funds will go toward college educations of other Lost Boys in America and The Literacy Center of Marial Bai.
- Support Sudanese communities in your region.
- Support divestment efforts. Check out the Sudan Divestment Task Force. Examine your own investments. There is a screening tool on their Web site.
- Support the people and government of Southern Sudan. A peace agreement was signed between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. According to the agreement, in 2011, the south will vote on whether they want to secede from the north. Most southern Sudanese favor this. The international community needs to maintain pressure on Khartoum for this to happen. If the genocide continues and Khartoum continues to annihilate its own people in Darfur, some believe the Sudanese government will not honor this agreement to allow secession of southern Sudan.
- Press for punitive measures against the regime in Khartoum. The government prosecuting the genocide in Sudan is the same one responsible for two million deaths in southern Sudan. Pressure Congress to support UN sanctions on Sudanese officials and businesses, and insist the US declassifies and shares intelligence with the ICC (International Criminal Court).
