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BY BENJAMIN BRADLOW

In print | January 20, 2005

Swarthmore Sudan and the Genocide Intervention Fund picked up a number of key endorsements and made major strides towards increasing its public awareness in the lead-up to a planned official launch of their main fundraising initiative in April, according to Cara Angelotta ‘05, the group’s director of communications.

John Podesta, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton and current president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, gave his organization’s support to the GIF at a speech at Yale Law School on Dec. 6.

The Center has been giving the fund practical and logistical help. Donations to GIF are tax-deductible because it is temporarily operating under the cover of CAP’s non-profit, tax-exempt status (technically known as 501©(3) status), according to Angelotta.

“We’re provisionally helping [Swarthmore Sudan] out while they go about getting incorporated,” Peter Ogden, a research associate for CAP said. “The Center for American Progress is interested in cultivating this type of initiative on campuses … In many ways I think this will take off at the university level.”

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has begun including the Fund in presentations he makes about the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, though he has yet to officially endorse the campaign. “It’s nice to know that people in office are supporting us,” co-creater of the fund Andrew Sniderman ’06 said.

The fund aims to raise money to aid African Union peacekeeping troops currently serving in Darfur. Gail Smith, a fellow from CAP, is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, negotiating with AU representatives as to the exact way that the money from GIF will be spent. During Clinton’s administration, Smith managed the aid money that the administration gave to the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor of the AU.

Sniderman said that money from the fund will not go towardsbuying weapons for the AU troops. “There’s this tension between us recognizing that military force is required and us recognizing how problematic this is,” he said. “At the same time, do we want to be buying guns when we don’t know what will happen to those guns afterwards?”

In addition, buying arms may be unattractive to donors. “Donors are scared by buying guns,” he said.

As development of the fund has continued, the goals have changed. “This project began strictly as fundraising,” Sniderman said. “It’s changed to using fundraising as a leverage tool to get governments to act … We believe this will make a difference.”

According to political science professor Raymond Hopkins, the AU’s peacekeeping abilities are severely limited by a lack of funding. “The AU would require the same kind of resources that the U.S. military has” to effectively protect Sudanese victims of genocide, he said.

Though the funds GIF raise will be unlikely to have a major tangible effect on the day-to-day operations of the AU peacekeeping mission, Hopkins argued that the precedent set by GIF for citizen action on such big international issues could be significant. “It sets a precedent by which people that are outraged have a vehicle for taking action,” he said.

He pointed to the recent outpouring of aid for victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia by private citizens as a similar precedent. “The vast outpouring [of aid] by the public shamed governments to raise their pledges,” he said.

Mark Hanis ‘05, co-founder of Swarthmore Sudan, noted that the fund satisfies a void in international action related to the genocide in Darfur. "There’s a clear lack of military intervention … [The GIF] seemed to address the gap that no one was filling," he said.

Hanis is currently attending the 8th Annual Peacebuilding and Human Security Consultations Convention in Ottawa, Canda at the invitation of the Canadian Ambassador to the Great Lakes region in Africa Anne Leahy.

The fund’s press release has been featured on a number of Sudan-oriented web sites, including a popular blog about the conflict, passionofthepresent.org, as well as the site of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, which recently signed a peace deal to end an unrelated conflict in southern Sudan.

Swarthmore Sudan has also begun a number of other initiatives to encourage action at Swarthmore and other college campuses, as well by other non-profit humanitarian groups.

The group is currently trying to get Swarthmore to divest from firms operating in Sudan.

According to Emiliano Rodriguez ’05, who is running the divestment campaign for Swarthmore Sudan, Swarthmore does not have direct holdings in Sudan.

However, the college invests in firms operating in Sudan through hedge funds in which the college holds shares.

“Swarthmore doesn’t directly invest in international firms,” he said.

College Treasurer Suzanne Welsh will be sending letters on behalf of Swarthmore Sudan to the managers of these funds to encourage them to sell their holdings in firms operating in Sudan, according to Rodriguez.

The campaign is also working to generate a joint policy statement to be signed by other non-profit humanitarian groups.

This is a similar project to that undertaken by many groups to support NATO bombing of Bosnia to stop ethnic cleansing happening there, according to campaign member Lissie Jacquette ’07

Jacquette said that the campaign is in the midst of contacting the organizations that signed the Bosnia joint policy statement before having a set text for the statement.

The campaign is reaching out to other college campuses through a “Do-It-Yourself Kit” that it has developed. “can see a variety of different campaigns they can organize to make a difference,” campaign member Janessa Calvo-Friedman ’08 said.

The kit includes a selection of different projects including awareness bracelets similar to the popular Livestrong bracelets and more action-oriented tasks such as letter-writing campaigns, according to Calvo-Friedman.

Among those schools using the kit include Haverford College, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Chicago, according to a report issued by the campaign. The campaign plans to contact school in the Ivy League and Big 10 athletic conferences to advertise its kit, according to Calvo-Friedman.

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