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Church World Service to Give National Support to Growing Grassroots 'Dear Sudan' Campaign

Woman and baby in camp for dispaced persons. Photo: ACT/Caritas

July 19, 2005

Agency's Regional Offices Will Challenge Communities to Come Aboard

NEW YORK - The global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) announced today that a local grassroots awareness and fundraising campaign for conflict victims in Sudan is expanding nationally and will channel donations to CWS. Concurrently, Church World Service says it will further support the "Dear Sudan" national initiative through related promotional efforts.

Church World Service's 22 regional offices will assist in launching "Dear Sudan" campaigns in communities throughout the country. American Jewish World Service is a partner in endorsing the national awareness- and fundraising campaign.

"We applaud this creative, grassroots effort and urge communities across the country to join in," says Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director and CEO of Church World Service. "It's an interfaith effort in each community, and religious organizations lead the way," he added. The "Dear Sudan" national effort hopes to engage 5,000 communities in the drive.

"Dear Sudan" began in Petaluma, California, in the fall of 2004, to help alleviate the suffering of people uprooted by violence in Darfur, western Sudan. The movement is now expanding nationwide and will further embrace the crushing needs of victims of what has been termed genocide in Sudan's western Darfur region as well as the more than 4 million people uprooted by the just-ended 21-year conflict between North and South Sudan.

More than 2 million people in the Darfur region of western Sudan have been uprooted from their homes by widespread violence, including the burning of villages. As many as 400,000 people have been killed by ethnic violence or have died from hunger or disease. The U.S. Congress and others have named it genocide. Most of the displaced families are living in makeshift camps in west, north, and south Darfur, and more than 200,000 have fled across the border into Chad. Humanitarian needs are urgent.

The group launched its national "Dear Sudan" website this week (www.dearsudan.org). Links to "Dear Sudan," background information on Sudan's conflicts, humanitarian accounts and emergency response reports on the Darfur region, North and South Sudan also appear on the CWS website at www.churchworldservice.org/news/Sudan/.

For those uprooted by the long conflict in southern Sudan who are now returning home, CWS is helping to provide reconstruction assistance, seeds, agricultural tools, household and other supplies.

CWS has been active in calling for the international community to act to stop Sudan's ongoing violence. A January 2005 peace agreement ended the 21-year north-south war in Sudan that killed at least 2 million people.

Many of the more than 4 million displaced people are now traveling from encampments in the north back to the south at a rate of about 1,500 a day, most without any means of assistance or support. Food supplies are inadequate, and the infrastructure was decimated.

To date "Dear Sudan" campaigns have been held in California's Marin, Contra Costa, and Santa Rosa counties.

Church World Service and its 35 member denominations are outspoken on the need for lawfulness in Sudan and are supporting appeals to aid Sudan's displaced populations and for peacemaking and conflict resolution.

Denominations specifically supporting the "Dear Sudan" campaign include: United Church of Christ -- One Great Hour of Sharing; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - Week of Compassion; United Methodist Church; American Baptists Churches USA; Reformed Church in America.

The United Church of Christ, at its General Synod meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, passed a resolution earlier this month on peace in Sudan that included support for the Dear Sudan movement. A similar resolution is expected to be passed at the meeting of the Disciples of Christ in Portland, Oregon, this weekend.

Contributions may be sent through the Dear Sudan website or directly to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515, attention "Dear Sudan." Credit card contributions can be made online or 800-297-1516, ext. 222.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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