Human Rights

The School of the Americas Protest took place on the weekend of November 19^th. The Schools of the Americas Watch group organized this event. According to a WikiNews article:

Activists claim that both SOA (in the past, during 80's) and WHINSEC (at present day) trained militias in tactics of violence that are/were used against political dissidents in their native countries. They accuse SOA graduates of been responsible of death squads, drug deals, murders, rape and torture. They say the school is responsible by these acts and that many techniques of torture its graduated students have used in their countries had been learned at the military American school. A list of allegeds SOA graduated students's crimes can be seen at the Virtual Truth Commission, an anti-SOA webpage.

You can still help out even if you didn’t make it the protest. Find out how here:

http://soaw.org/type.php?type=6

Water for Sudan

Background

Water for Sudan was founded in 2003. It exists to raise money for and to create borehole wells in Southern Sudanese villages. According to the Web site, Water for Sudan has thus far drilled 43 wells.

The Club

Water for Sudan at Ithaca College has raised nearly five thousand dollars to support the cause. They meet at 8:30 on Tuesday nights on the second floor of Friends Hall, and new members are always welcome.

Habitat Efforts for Katrina and Rita Victims

Habitat for Humanity has brought together many different organizations to aid those left homeless from hurricane's Katrina and Rita. These partnerships have maximized the effectiveness of Habitat's potential in the hit region.

Both the Salvation Army and Lutheran Social Services have helped Habitat with their building efforts. As a result, 600 qualified applications for new homes were sent to the Gulf Coast affiliates. The Salvation Army has donated over $1.5 million in financial assistance to 150 Habitat for Humanity homeowners, and also allocated $7.4 million to support the 2008 Carter Work Project in the Gulf Coast. Other partnerships with Habitat have resulted in 75 new homes.

Habitat committed $4 million to Church World Service (CWS), a faith-based relief, development and refugee-assistance volunteer organization, to assist in the repair of 600 hurricane-damaged homes in a two-year period. In the first year, Church World Service distributed $2.6 million to more than 30 Long-Term Recovery Committee community groups and funded 415 total projects for hurricane recovery in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Habitat’s partnership with Church World Service was recognized with the “Award of Excellence” by the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster in April 2007.

Habitat is supporting Rebuilding Together, the nation’s largest volunteer-based organization revitalizing and preserving homes for elderly, disabled and low-income homeowners. The support includes assisting with the operation of Gulf Coast Rebuilding Together affiliates, facilitates relationship building between Rebuilding Together and Habitat affiliates, and renovates hurricane-damaged homes for an estimated 200 families per year.

http://www.habitat.org/gulfrecoveryeffort/partnerships_collaborations.aspx

Human Rights

Background

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document lists what the UN believes should be fundamental rights for all people, and strongly urges for them to be recognized by all countries.

The Club

IC Human Right's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

In pursuit of this vision, Ithaca College's Human Rights mission is to educate students and community members so that they may prevent and end abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, freedom from discrimination, and other international human rights crises.

Ithaca College Human Rights is non-partisan and not affiliated with any specific political ideology, economic interest or religion. They are are solely concerned with the protection of human rights.

Human Rights

The club watched "In the Time of the Butterflies" tonight. The movie is based on the novel by Julia Alvarez. It tells the life story of the Mirabal sisters who fought against the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and tried to expose the brutal acts that were taking place under this government.

The trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6J5k1mYw50

Habitat for Humanity

Hello, this is Elliot Formal reporting on Habitat for Humanity.

What it is...

Habitat for Humanity is an international, non-profit organization that seeks to build decent and affordable housing. The organization builds houses with volunteer laborers, and the houses are sold at no profit around the world.

Habitat at Ithaca College

Ithaca College has a very large Habitat club, however, they are always looking for new members. There is almost always something going on over the weekend for Habitat that anybody can participate in. The club meets at 4 pm on Sundays in the Taughannock Falls room at the Campus Center.

Here is the website to the Ithaca College Habitat for Humanity Club:
http://sites.google.com/site/ichabitat/Home

History of Habitat

Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 by Linda and Miller Fuller. Since it's creation, Habitat has become an international phenomenon. Many different Habitat groups have been created around the world. They operate completely independent of one another with volunteer labor and donations of money and materials.

Families who are in need of a new home apply to a local Habitat group. The families are chosen based on:

a) their need
b) their willingness to assist Habitat in building their new home, and
c) their ability to repay the loan.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded the Fullers the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and called Habitat "the most successful, continuous community service project in the history of the United States"

What Habitat has Accomplished

Habitat completed construction of their 300,000th house on November 13, 2008. Over 1,000,000 people in thousands of different communities have been provided with a decent home because of Habitat.

Invisible Children!

Hi everybody!

This is Kristy Zhen and I'll be posting info about IC's Invisible Children club.

First things first, Invisible Children is an international non-profit organization that helps raise awareness about child soldiers and the war-torn areas in Uganda and the Congo. It also raises money to help the devastated communities affected by the war that has lasted 23 years. Invisible Children has helped rebuilt schools, provided almost 900 scholarships to students, implemented micro-economic initiatives as well as other programs to help these communities.

Secondly, IC's Invisible Children club is new to Ithaca Club. So they are looking for members who are interested in supporting the organization as well as helping raise awareness about the club and its motives. The club usually meets on Thursdays at around 7 pm. If you'd like to join, shoot an email to invisiblechildrenic@gmail.com.

WHY INVISIBLE CHILDREN WAS CREATED

In the 1980s, the Holy Spirit Movement was formed by a woman named Alice Lakwena along with her followers to overthrow the Government of Uganda (GoU). The movement gained momentum as resentment toward the government increased. When Lakwena was exiled, Joseph Kony took control and transformed the rebel army into the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA then started abducting children and indoctrinating them into their ranks. It is estimated that more than 90% of the LRA's troops were abducted as children.

In 1996, in response to LRA attacks on villages, the GoU forcibly evicted and relocated thousands of people into camps as a form of protection. However, it's been over a decade and roughly one million individuals still live in these camps and struggle with poverty, disease, and starvation.

In 2003, "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" a documentary about Uganda's night commuters and child soldiers was created. The organization was created from the overwhelming response of people wanting to help after watching the documentary.

UGANDA TODAY

In 2005, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Kony and his top four commanders.

Between June 2006 and March 2008, the LRA and GoU have engaged in peace talks but final peace agreement has not been signed.

On December 24, 2008, the LRA attacked the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing over 600 and abducting more than 160 children.

The LRA Disarmament Bill passed but not all representatives have been signed on it. Go to http://www.invisiblechildren.com/obama and fill in your zipcode to look up representatives from your state who have and have not signed the bill.

Welcome!

This blog will detail the activities of four Ithaca College groups dedicated to activism and helping society. Lauren Mateer will be writing about Water for Sudan, Elliot Formal will be writing about Habitat for Humanity, Kristy Zhen will be writing about Invisible Children, and Jennifer Wendel will be writing about IC Human Rights. You can click the tags for these four groups (see the bottom of the entry) to see all posts related to them.

Keep checking the blog for upcoming events, information about the clubs, and ways that you can get involved. Also, you can follow us on Twitter. See the sidebar for updates or follow IC_Activism.