Mass. teens use websites to raise awareness, funds
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | June 7, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Two Northfield Mount Hermon School students from Massachusetts will take center stage today in a new push to stop the genocide in Darfur when they appear before a congressional panel investigating ways to pressure China to use its special influence to rein in the government of Sudan.

Today they will bring their message of action to Capitol Hill, where they will testify at a hearing chaired by Representative John Tierney , a Democrat from Salem who is chairman of the House subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs.

The goal of the hearing is to find new ways for the United States to rally the international community and global business leaders to take bold action -- including a potential boycott of the Beijing Olympics next year -- to put an end to the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region that has claimed at least 400,000 lives.

Appearing before Tierney's committee will be "the ultimate achievement of our goal," Anderson, 18, said in an interview yesterday after arriving in Washington for a series of Darfur-related events, including a protest in front of the Sudanese Embassy. "One of our biggest goals was to have our generation take a stand on this and give it a voice."

Anderson and Slavin, 17, were each motivated separately to get involved in stopping the genocide in Darfur. Anderson said he was energized after he took a class trip to South Africa last year, where he met people who had seen first hand the devastation in Darfur. Slavin wrote on her website that she decided to do something after learning about the situation during an internship at Wellesley College's Women's Research Center.

Together they drafted a plan to use MySpace and Facebook to organize young people for the cause, urging them to host fund-raisers in their schools to support groups that want to raise awareness about the deadly violence that Arab militias -- backed by the Sudanese government -- are inflicting on Darfur residents. Eventually, they met with the Save Darfur Coalition in Washington, which agreed to support them.

"Things kind of snowballed from there," Anderson said.

The Dollars for Darfur National High School Challenge has spawned a movement across the country. Young people show videos about the Darfur conflict and collect donations for the Save Darfur Coalition, an advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness about the genocide and mobilizing an international response.

Anderson and Slavin will be joined in Washington today by other high school students from across the country who have raised money through Dollars for Darfur, including Brendan Flanagan and Miriam Ross of Lenox High School in Lenox, Mass., and Nicole Munson and Jennifer Brown from Mill River Union High School in North Clarendon, Vt.

Tierney said in an interview yesterday that he invited Anderson and Slavin to Washington after hearing about their work on visits back home to the Sixth District.

"Every time I go to a high school they bring this up," Tierney said. "It is really lighting kids up."

Their efforts, he said, have demonstrated that social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook can move people to get involved in social justice issues. "This new medium and young people will have an impact on this," said Tierney.

President Bush, attending a G-8 summit in Germany yesterday, agreed more action is needed to end the suffering in Darfur, and said the United States might be willing to support a no-fly zone over Darfur to prevent the Sudanese government from resupplying the Janjaweed militias.

"I want to see people helping Darfur by joining us and sending clearer and stronger messages" to Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, Bush told reporters. "I'm frustrated because there are still people suffering" and yet the United Nations "process is moving at a snail's pace."

The United States and Britain have both threatened Sudan with tougher UN sanctions if the government does not act to end the conflict. A UN sanctions resolution against Sudan has drawn particular opposition from China, which buys most of its oil from Sudan and supplies the country's troops with weapons. Tierney said he hopes to mobilize governments around the world to take more dramatic action by using the theme of the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- "One World, One Dream" -- to press the Chinese government to use its influence with Sudan.

The hearing today will also include testimony from Daoud Ibrahaem Hari , a Darfuri refugee who was taken hostage during the conflict, US Olympic athlete Joey Cheek , a gold medalist speedskater, and Kenyan distance runner Tegla Loroupe , as well as several humanitarian specialists. Actress Mia Farrow, who has called on corporate sponsors to pull their support from the Olympics if China does not do more, will also meet with Tierney.

Tierney said he believes it is too early to consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics, but "we have to keep the drumbeat going and get China to step up. They are the ones with the leverage. If they don't want them to become the genocide Olympics, they have to do more to end the suffering in Darfur."

Slavin, asked yesterday whether she thought a boycott of the Olympics was warranted, said, "I think it would make an incredible statement about how far people are willing to go" to save Darfur.

Bryan Bender can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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