Over the past three months, STAND Canada has taken the opportunity to step back and evaluate our organization’s mandate, activities and effectiveness.  We continue to be committed to making it easy for our membership to translate compassion into action by becoming advocates against genocide, but we believe it’s time to consider new ways of accomplishing this goal to maximize our impact.

In the past few months, we have asked our membership for feedback.  After hearing from our alumni, our chapters and members, we have decided to make some changes to ensure that STAND effectively facilitates anti-genocide advocacy and continues to empower youth and the Canadian public at-large.

Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird expressed concern about reported human rights violations taking place in South Kordofan, Sudan.  These gross human rights abuses have been increasing in the South Kordofan region of Sudan since July. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled and humanitarian agencies are being prevented from providing aid to those in need.

While STAND welcomes Minister Baird’s concern, we also believe that Canada, with parliament and through the Sudan Task force, can take more public and concrete action to help stop the violence in Sudan.

Two weeks ago, STAND Canada wrote a letter to the Acting Director of the Sudan Task Force expressing concern for the urgency of the situation.  If you have not already shown your support please do so by signing our letter.  To date, we have collected over 120 signatures.  Sign today to convey your continued support for the people of Sudan.

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Laurie Drake is Chapter Director of STAND Canada.

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 and since then there have been several attempts at bringing peace to the region.

None of the agreements has brought lasting peace to Darfur. The latest initiative from the Sudan government, the Darfur Political Process, purports to break this trend.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13408931