Grassroots group wants Winnipeggers to rally for Darfur

Bringing about awareness of the situation in Darfur is an issue Chris and Sarah Yachison don’t take lightly.

The siblings from Dakota Collegiate want the public and Manitoba politicians to pay more attention to the ongoing crisis and have organized a rally on April 29 at the Legislature building to bring the issue to the forefront.

“Before hearing about this, I didn’t realize there was a genocide occurring in the world,” Chris said.

“After what happened in awanda the international community said they would never let this happen again, but it has, so now is the time to act.”

The Yachisons are part of a Walk 4 Darfur group that organizes itself once a month to think of ways to help aid those suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Earlier in the year, Chris came up with the idea to start a green ribbon campaign with all of the proceeds going to UNAMID (the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur).

“The green ribbon campaign symbolized Darfur in the same manner there are ribbons for AIDs and breast cancer,” Chris said.

“We are hoping to get some athletes to wear them at the Beijing games and we have them at all our events and businesses throughout the city in which people can make a donation.”

The group held a run last October in support of Darfur at Assiniboine Park. Over 500 people participated and over $15,000 was raised.

The event served as catalyst for the group, inspiring them to continue their work in raising awareness.

“When people talk about Darfur the most common response is that someone should do something and what separates us from them is that we have taken that step to address the issue,” group member Michael Anderson said.

“It is grassroots and it is basic, but it is a start. If there are enough small groups doing something than we can eventually grow that awareness where we can actually have people paying attention to what is going on.”

At the April 29 rally, which will begin at noon, the group plans to address the current situation in Darfur, as well as provide entertainment in the form of Sudanese hip-hop artist Hot Dogg and local dance group Ignite Movement.

The group has also asked premier Gary Doer, leader of the opposition Hugh McFayden and Manitoba Liberal leader John Gerrard to address the crowd.

“This event will allow Winnipeggers to experience the social and political fabric within which we live and to put global citizenship into action while listening to politicians, signing petitions and speaking out on an issue of international concern,” Chris said.