By: Sameer Padania, Posted: Feb 10 09

Regions: Global, Sudan, United States

Issues: Armed conflict, Humanitarian, Women's rights

Tags: darfur, online activism, rape, savedarfur, video, women

What are you doing tomorrow night, February 11th, at 8pm EST (or 1am GMT)?  I hope you'll consider joining me in taking part in One Night, One Voice - along with thousands of others across the USA and the world to bear witness to the testimonies of Darfuri women - and to take action.  The Save Darfur Coalition and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum are showing the full version of the film trailered below.

Darfuri women and girls in the refugee camps in eastern Chad have not only had to suffer forced displacement from their homes and families - they face the additional risk of sexual violence every time they go for water or firewood.  The women featured in this trailer for tomorrow night's film have all suffered sexual violence in the form of rape.

You can download and host a screening of the full film, which we'll make available tomorrow via the Hub, but you can also visit the USHMM's website to watch a panel discussion about the impact of rape as a weapon of war in Darfur. And here are five things you can do to support One Night, One Voice even if you can't watch online tomorrow:

Read the Fact Sheet about violence against women in Darfur.

Get the Activity Kit to help you plan an event.

Download Materials including posters, press kit and more.

Sign the Petition to help women and girls in Darfur.

See a Map of Events across the U.S. and the World

One of the Save Darfur Coalition partners, Physicians for Human Rights, whom my colleague Chris wrote about last month, is also working to draw attention to the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war:

This past November, Physicians for Human Rights sent a team of three
physicians and a human rights investigator to eastern Chad to interview
Darfuri refugee women about how their lives have been affected by this
violence.

PHR announces the launch of a new microsite, darfuriwomen.org, where
over the next few months we will share with you their stories, images
from daily life in the camps, and our findings. We’ll also ask you to
take actions to both protect women from violence and treat the women
whose lives have already been irrevocably changed by this horror.

Later this month, we'll be returning with more films from and about Darfur - including from 24 Hours for Darfur, Human Rights Watch and the Aegis Trust. Keep checking back - and of course, if you find Darfur-related video, contribute it below or here.