Tent2Tent: Connect with Darfuri Communities

An Introduction and Invitation
by Gabriel Stauring, Co-Founder, Stop Genocide Now

Your Tents of Hope journey will connect you with the community around you, but it will also give you the opportunity to connect with the people you are helping: the survivors of Darfur.

Tents of Hope is partnering with Stop Genocide Now (SGN) and its project, i-ACT (interactive-activism), in bringing together communities here in the U.S. with communities in the Darfuri refugee camps in Chad where thousands of displaced survivors live. SGN will allow you to meet and communicate with the people who have suffered through unimaginable horrors. Through video and other forms of communication, you will see them, hear their voices and learn about their hopes and dreams. And they will be able to meet you and your community.

The Tent2Tent program is a variation of the sister city model. Your local Tents of Hope will connect you with a tent in a refugee camp in Chad and the people who live in it. They are counting on our help to assist them in achieving their dream of peace in Darfur. They need our support and advocacy as they look forward to the day when they will be able to return to their communities and homes in Darfur. SGN will facilitate the exchange of letters, photos, video, art work and personal messages of solidarity. Through the Tent2Tent program, material support will be directed to the refugee camps in Chad through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Tent2Tent program can be expanded to include a sister city type of connection that includes a commitment to supporting the resettlement of refugees in Darfur. Your community would commit to a relationship with the people of your "sister tent" and the community around them—their refugee camp—to build lasting ties of friendship and peace. The Tent2Tent program would create a long-term relationship between communities in the US and refugee camps.

If you would like your local Tents of Hope to be a part of the Tent2Tent program, contact the i-ACT team: i-actinfo@stopgenocidenow.org.

Meet some of the people of Darfur: Click here to download the Tent2Tent Information Packet (PDF file).