Gsolomon20’s Weblog

We are still hastening to get enough funds to cover our three members’ imminent trip to South Sudan, but we are, incredibly, suddenly, $2,000 closer thanks to the Sullivan Ballou Fund of Minneapolis.

The Fund, founded by Bruce and Elissa Peterson, was moved by Gabriel Solomon’s work against child abduction A formal announcement ceremony is forthcoming, but we cannot thank the Sullivan Ballou Fund enough for this vote of confidence.

As reported today in the St. Paul Pioneer Press!

Ruben Rosario continues his excellent coverage of this campaign in Sunday’s Pioneer Press. Click here to read his column. A great update in Monday’s Minnesota Daily (click here), and a long slot on Jack Rice’s show on WCCO radio on Wednesday.

If you’re visiting this site because of that coverage, welcome. For background on child abduction, please click the links at right. We are trying to send three U. of M. students to South Sudan to plant the seeds of a campaign against child abduction. If you are willing and able to help, please read below on how to contribute.

Our fundraiser Saturday at Tam-Tam’s African Restaurant sponsored by The Wake Magazine was a great success. From T-shirt sales and donations, we raised about enough to cover one of the plane tickets for our plan to send three students to South Sudan over Spring Break! This exceeded our expectations.

We still need to raise enough money to cover two more plane tickets and the cost of visas and meals during the 11-day visit.

• You can buy a T-shirt (as pictured at right, except in “serene green”) for $20 by stopping by our base of operations — the Global Studies student lounge, Room 246 of the Social Sciences Building, University of Minnesota West Bank campus (map). If you can’t make it over, email Hilary Duerksen at duer0046@umn.edu to arrange a pickup.
• To sponsor a specific part of our trip, stop by the Global Studies lounge, or call us at 612-624-8384.
• We’ll also set up information-’n'-donation tables around the U. of M. campus in the coming weeks and will announce the locations on this blog.
• Otherwise, general donations can be mailed to this address.

Thanks to our allied student organizations who participated, James Faghmous of GAPSA, Ben Marcy of CHANCE, and the many members of the United Nations Student Association and Amnesty International Legal Support Network who form the core of our volunteer force. Thanks also to KMOJ, KFAI, and the West Bank Community Coalition for their advance promotion of the event. And thanks most of all to the friends, relatives, classmates, and supporters who donated.

Thank you to KFAI radio, 90.3 and 106.7 FM, for devoting a segment on the Thursday evening news program to child abduction in South Sudan and our fundraiser Saturday at Tam-Tam’s Restaurant. Save Yar Campaign members Tracy Baumgardt and Kait Dougherty were interviewed. To hear the segment, click here and fast-forward in the audio clip to 18:00.

We’ve made great progress from Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. But there are limits to how much change we can effect in South Sudan from long-distance.

After building our knowledge base and network of contacts, after refining our plan for research and advocacy with the strong support of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Program, our campaign is now ready to go to South Sudan and advocate directly with the government officials and tribal leaders who can stop child abduction and return abducted children to their families. We’re ready to send Gabriel Solomon and two other University of Minnesota students to Juba over spring break to hire two local researchers and start forming a coalition against child abduction (For more about the purpose of the trip, click here.).

We’re ready that is — except financially. We’re donating labor, and Gabriel is lining up free lodging and ground transportation. We are applying for a grant to pay the local researchers. But we need to raise a few thousand dollars for the airfare, visas, meals, and phone calls.
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Long-distance advocacy has its limits. So the Save Yar Campaign is trying to raise funds to send three members to South Sudan to advocate, directly and in person, with government officials to work for the release of abducted children. When you order a T-shirt from Cafepress, the Save Yar Campaign student organization receives a $3 commission. And you get to display your support of children’s rights.  Please visit our Cafepress store at www.cafepress.com/saveyar