On July 28, we’ll state our case to Congress

Our members Tracy Baumgardt and Madeline Thaden have just returned from a highly productive week of meetings with officials in Congress and the administration.

We’re very happy to relate that, with the crucial support and facilitation of the office of Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Tracy and Madeline arranged for us to hold an official congressional briefing in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Room HC-6, at 1-3 p.m. July 28.

This will allow us an extended audience with top aides and other influential officials from government and nonprofits when we can describe the problem of uncontrolled child abduction in southeast Sudan. More to the point, we will ask attendees to use their influence to get the U.S. government to urgently lend assistance to this largely overlooked problem

We need your help.

Contact Congress: We want the U.S. to support a peace process for the Dinka and Murle communities caught up in this abduction nightmare. The Dinka are also seeing rising tension with the Nuer tribe, so that conflict should be addressed at the same time.
That is an urgent need, but it’s short-term. We also want the U.S. to provide aid to deal in the long term with the poverty and health problems that set up the conflict.
Please contact the offices of your U.S. House member and U.S. Senators and ask them to support U.S. aid to address the problem of child abduction centered on Jonglei state in South Sudan. U.S. residents can find contact information for their U.S. Representative on this page and for their U.S. Senators on this page. Direct them to www.save-yar.org for more information.

Contact South Sudan: The South Sudan government has indicated its willingness to pay attention to this problem, but the country’s many problems can distract them. It would help our effort if you would contact the Government of South Sudan Mission in Washington, D.C. via their web page and ask them to support peaceful reconciliation and development in Jonglei state.

Contribute: The Human Rights Program of the University of Minnesota has financially supported Gabriel Kou Solomon’s work in Juba, South Sudan, since March, but the budget has been expended. We also must raise funds to travel to D.C. for the July 28 briefing. If you are in a position to contribute to this work, please visit our donation page.

The Save Yar Campaign and its new umbrella organization Child Protection International are grateful for the warm welcome from Sudan experts in USAID and the State Department; the offices of Reps. Thomas Payne and Frank Wolf and the Minnesota and Wisconsin congressional delegations; and NGOs Save the Children USA, PACT, and the International Crisis Group.

–Daniel Lynx Bernard