ATTENTION!!!
JOIN STUDENTS NATION-WIDE TO END THE SANCTIONS ON IRAQ
As students who stand opposed to the US/UN sponsored sanctions on
Iraq, which have claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, we
are currently organizing a nation-wide student project called the
"National Spring Break Against the Sanctions." It seems that a good
opportunity may present itself to send a STUDENT DELEGATION to Iraq
during the Spring of 2001 through a number of organizations, among
them Voices in the Wilderness. "National Spring Break Against the
Sanctions" will provide some reachable, short-term goals for your
campus activism against the sanctions this year, culminating in the
participation of one or more students in an all-student
public-witness
delegation during the spring break of your academic year. Keep in
mind that participation in the project and delegation will require
some serious preparation work throughout the year.
We have sent this information out to student groups in colleges and
universities across the nation. If you are interested in
participating in the spring-break delegation, if your student group
is
interested in sponsoring one or more student volunteers from your
university for the delegation, or if you are interested in supporting
the project in any other ways, please contact us ASAP. Once we have
an estimate of the size and number of delegations, the project can
begin taking shape. Below is a sketch of the project idea so far.
Please keep in mind that this project is in the making, so any
suggestions and ideas are very welcome!
National Spring Break Against the Sanctions
1) Educational events, speakers,etc
The first phase of the project would involve basic educational
activities to introduce the issue of the sanctions to your campuses
and communities throughout first semester. Building greater
awareness
early on about the effect of sanctions on the Iraqi people will be
important for the later phases of the project, which require
fund-raising. See the end of this message for websites with
educational information and resources aswell as speaker lists.
2) Selection of delegates
Once we have an idea of the number of possible participants
in
the Spring Break delegation, the dates and sizes of the delegations
can be decided upon. We hope to represent as many regions and
institutions as possible in the delegations, so the number of
possible
delegates from the same school may be limited. Also, we realize that
spring break falls on different dates for different colleges and
universities, so dates are indefinite as of now.
4) Advertisement of Project and Fund-raising
Once the delegations have been decided on, student groups
would then start spreading the word about the upcoming trip. It will
be up to student groups to fundraise for the trips, which will cost
approximately $1,800-2,200 per person (including airfare). Perhaps
student groups from universities that are not sending a delegate
could
work to help sponsor the project and students from the region that
will be going. After all, the purpose of an all-student delegation
is
to represent the concerned student population of the nation.
5) Spring Break trip
For descriptions of and stories from past Voices in the
Wilderness delegations, please see their website. The student
participants will of course help shape the itinerary of the trip.
We're hoping to somehow bring video cameras along with the
delegations
to film the students experiences. The footage could then be edited
and turned into a great educational tool during the follow-up
education.
6)Follow-Up Education
This is the crux of the entire project, the reason for any
such act of public-witness. The student participants and supporting
student groups will formulate these plans. We were envisioning that
students from colleges and universities in the same region could
spend
the following months educating in different communities around their
region. Any student who commits to a spring break delegation must
commit as well to a certain amount (to be determined later by the
group as a whole) of educational work. We figured that educating in
small groups rather thansolo would be fun and more affective.
Creative ideas are welcome!
Before you decide to join this project, PLEASE read about the health
and safety as well as financial risks involved in breaking the
embargo
and traveling to Iraq. All of that very important information can be
found at http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/documents1a.html. Read
carefully!
We want to have an estimate of the number of delegates and
delegations
by the end of October. If you are interested in becoming involved in
this project in any way, please contact us AS SOON AS POOSSIBLE via
e-mail or phone:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(812) 335-8920 (ask for Kathryn)
We hope to hear from you soon!
Thanks,
Kathryn Bryan, Philip Metres, and Sohaib Sultan
(students of Indiana University at Bloomington)
WEBSITES:
*Voices in the Wilderness--a campaign to end economic sanctions
against the people of Iraq
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/
*Iraq Action Coalition-- http://iraqaction.org
*Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC)--see this site for
important Iraq-related action alerts
http://leb.net/epic/index.html
*Sanctioning Peace: a carefully selected index of internet resources
on Iraq--- http://www.justlanguage.org/
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