Somalia Awareness Week

Hello Everyone!

Today kicks off the Students ReBuild/One Million Bones' Somalia Awareness Week program.  In August 2011, the UN declared famine in Somalia.  The reality is grim: Tens of thousands already dead, 4 million Somalis being directly affected, up to 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming months, and a refugee crisis in neighboring Kenya. As part of The Path Forward Challenge we're working to make sure people know about the crisis facing Somalia, and then take some action.

Here's a link to where you can find an amazing Learning in Action Toolkit focused on the crisis in Somalia. Download the pdf.  There's information for everyday this week and ways for you, your friends, your students, your community to learn more and do more. Today, you can take a photo tour and learn more about the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab.

FACT: 430,000 people live in the Dadaab camp.

FACT: 1,500 Somalis arrive there everyday.

So download the toolkit and in the meantime, check out this video by Somali rapper k'naan; he makes music and talks about his country.

We'll have more about Somalia Awareness Week tomorrow, and coming soon, a blog from Naomi about what all is happening in New Orleans.

Oh, and check out our facebook page because in addition to Somalia Awareness Week, our friends at i-act are also doing a Facebook campaign i-act for Sudan.  You can find out about that on our facebook page.

Have a great rest of your Monday.

A great Friday and a guest blogpost

We are having a great Friday at the One Million Bones office!  We've scheduled two new events, both of which will be registering with Students Rebuild, and we've had great news on the logisitics for the big installation in 2013. Eduardo rocks!  So, share our excitement and take it with you through your weekend.  Whoo hoo...

Oh, and we posed a question on our facebook page:  If One Million Bones could have any director make a documentary about the project who would you choose for us. Katie would choose the Coen Brothers; I'd choose Spike Lee.  You?  Let us know!

Now, I'm going to share the second guest blog post by our Amy Biehl intern Brendan. It's his re-cap of the 50,000 Bones Preview Installation.

Voices on the Street

by Brendan Donohoe

With a quiet clatter, the first bone was placed on the pavement.  With that, the volunteers closed in, their arms filled with bones, patiently awaiting their turn to add to the ever-expanding field of white.  Persons and families from varying genders, descents, religions, economics, health, education, and lives banded together to make their mark upon the streets and the world.

After about two hours, the goal had, at last, been accomplished.  Where the street was once barren, it was now abundant with every type of bone one might imagine.  Skulls, femurs, ribs all laid out, basking in the sunlight to form a colossal sheet of bones, each as varied, unique, and independent as those individuals who lost their life to genocide.  With the finish of the installation came a moment of remembrance for our brothers and sisters.  Their cries, their anger, their laughter, their joy, was audible through every corner of the installation.  Finally, these oft-ignored voices could soar high above it all.  At long last, there it was.

After hearing from the speakers, photos were taken and volunteers took a short break before returning outside.  Just as earlier, the volunteers came together and gathered the bones from the street.  After some time, the bones were stowed into the trucks, the volunteers returned home, and the street once again dimmed to the black of asphalt.  The imprint the bones made, however, would forever last.  For once, for once, the clutter of the everyday world had settled, past the political jargon and through the fiery drama of the media, making way for the issue rarely given voice, genocide.

Even so, killings still continue to occur in other parts of the globe.  Recognition comes before action and, even with the 50K having finished, genocide continues mostly unseen, and thus, untouched.  But this, I think, is a start.  And, according to nature, a start will always have an end.  How it ends, however, is our decision, and one that is to be made with our actions now.

FWD

It seems that so much frustration with government comes from the lumbering pace and sometimes admittedly ridiculous levels of bureaucracy we have to deal with.  I can't tell you how many times I've thought,  "it's a wonder anything ever gets done."  But check this out!  It's a campaign from USAID called FWD, and honestly, I think it's pretty great. 

It's doing what we're doing, raising awareness among people that these crises in Somalia, the DRC, Sudan and Burma are happening.  

Try this: click on the link to FWD and then send the information to someone you know.  Then tell them that they can do more by checking out what we're doing here at One Million Bones and through our Students Rebuild partnership.

Thank you all SO MUCH for what you do. 

Why the Students Rebuild Challenge A Path Forward is SO important...

We've been telling you about this great new partnership that we have with Students Rebuild, the Bezos Family Foundation and CARE, and the truth is we are excited about it for a lot of reasons.  We get to reach out to and interact with students and educators from around the world, we get to work with really great organizations as partners, we're all together making a difference through our actions and through the generous financial inccentive that comes as part of every individual's participation in the challenge.  

And here's why that last piece is so important. There are so many governments and groups tossing around the number 750,000.  That's how many people are considered at risk of dying in Somalia in the next 3 months.  

This article is long, but please read it.  Every word.  And then tell people about the Students Rebuild challenge, and ask them to register, and ask them to make bones.  Because doing this will make a difference. Think about it, one click of a link to register, one hour to plan an event, one hour to be part of the event making bones, and you will be making a difference in the lives of one or some of those 750,000 people.  

And then, when those bones go to the national mall, you will see what you've done, what you're part of. 

That's what we at One Million Bones think of as the new face of art and activism.  Help us do it.

Check this out!

We told you about our fantastic new partnership with Students Rebuild, right?

Well, this is how amazing it is; we've already had all these teams register:

Powhatan Elementary

Gramercy Arts High School

Westmount Art Club

Wandering Educators

Community High School District 218

buildOn Philly

SJB 3rd Grade

Dawson Do Something Team

Stanton CAS Club

Panther Lake Student Council

Beacon Hill International School

PA's Westminster College #Enough Movement

Youth in Arts

We'll be featuring some of them on the Students Rebuild site and here on the OMB blog starting soon, so be sure to check it out.  This is awesome and so are every one of these teams.  If you are going to do an event, register through Students Rebuild and be part of this amazing student initiative! Maybe we'll feature you're team.