The purpose of Teens 4 Peace is to empower teens to address and to work toward solutions for issues of social justice.  We believe in the middle path of activism.  We want to meld the political activism such as the rallies and lobbying with a direct and hands-on approach to providing tangible solutions to the victims of injustice. For example, when the time comes that the Sudanese government is held accountable for the genocide in Darfur, Teens 4 Peace wants to be able to add to the growing body of circumstantial evidence necessary to prove that the genocide occurred.  To that end, one of our ongoing projects is to collect video testimonies of the Darfurian teens living in the refugee camps in Chad as well as from others living elsewhere who have escaped.  We can raise awareness of such tragedies and advocate for the victims, but in the end it is the voices of those subjected to such injustice which speak most clearly. Eliminating social injustice is fueled by compassion and inclusion and starts with small yet fundamental steps.

A Statement from Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu 

"I am thrilled to see American teenagers taking responsibility for making the world a better place.  For too long we adults have handed over to the  next generation a world that is shop soiled.  A world contaminated by greed and pollution where might is seen to be right.  We have inflicted untold suffering on innocent people through war, conflict, exploitation and human  rights abuses of every kind, often motivated by rampant greed for financial gain and power.  This is not the kind of world God wants and in our hearts it is not the kind of world we want.  I commend the teenagers of America.  Help us to regain our compassion, our idealism and the grace to acknowledge where we have gone wrong.  I have tremendous confidence in our youth they are the future and I am confident that they will do a better job than we have done.  They will be God's partners and will take us to the stars. Go for it."

Project WAPI

 WAter Purification Indicator

Teens 4 Peace members are currently building WAPIs, which is a new technique for purifying drinking water. The WAPI, a reusable Water Purification Indicator, is a simple low-cost device utilized to determine when water has reached pasteurization temperatures.  This treatment will decrease water-borne illnesses including worms, typhoid, rotaviruses, polioviruses, hepatitis A virus. When used with a solar cooker it also substantially reduces the need for women to travel outside the refugee camps to collect firewood. 

A young woman demonstrating how to use a homemade WAPI

In Southeastern Chad, over 200,000 Sudanese refugees have settled in lawless camps near the border.  At first, the female refugees needed to walk only a few hundred yards to find wood. But scarce sources were quickly depleted, and now women walk for miles making them easy targets for bands of Janjaweed militia who cross the border to prey on them.  Many women and young girls are kidnapped and brutally raped, and far too many are murdered. WAPIs can be built for the cost of between $1.00 and $3.00.

For less than you likely spend on a single meal, a WAPI can save a woman or young girl from rape or murder, or both.   If you'd like to support our efforts to supply WAPIs to the refugee camps in Chad, you can make a contribution to Teens 4 Peace.  For a contribution of $50 or more we will include a message of hope to the WAPI recipient reminding them that they are not forgotten.  Let us know if you would like your name included with the message of hope. 

To make a contribution please click the following link

To Email Executive Director Jaime Bergerson: Jaime@teens4peace.net

IN A NUTSHELL - MARCH 2008

March 9, 2008 (GUEREDA, Chad) — Three-year-old Hilam screams when medics lift her hospital sheets to examine where shrapnel ripped through her leg during a Sudanese government bombing raid on her Darfur village.  Doctors say they will have to amputate the limb.  Hilam's sister, Kaltouma, 11, has already had her leg amputated above the knee, and a third sister was also wounded. The girls are among at least 13,000 Sudanese who have crossed the border into Chad to escape Khartoum’s month-old operation near the West Darfur rebel stronghold of Jebel Moon. "I don’t know what to do. Our house has been burnt and my children have been injured by bullets and bombs. My children are ill and all I want is for them to be better," said their mother, Ashua Osman Youssouf, as she held vigil at Hilam’s bedside in Guereda hospital in eastern Chad. Sudan’s army says the month-old operation aims to open up humanitarian access and to chase away Darfur and Chadian rebels.   New refugees from Darfur wait to be processed after arriving at Maltam camp in Chad March 1, 2008. (Reuters)   Witnesses say air raids and Janjaweed militia raids on villages and camps for displaced people in Darfur have killed over 100 people — possibly many more — and left thousands of people camping out on the border short of food and water. The army denies links to the Janjaweed and  says many of those killed were rebels in civilian clothing.  International experts estimates that 200,000 people have died and more than 2 million dispaced since violence flared in the Darfur region in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, accusing Khartoum of neglect. Khartoum says only 9,000 people have lost their lives. "It is impossible for any of us to go back," said Isaak Abdallah Isaak, sitting  just a few metres (yards) from the dried out riverbed which separates Chad from Sudan.  HUNGRY Isaak was forced to abandon three of his children along with his elderly mother during the panic that followed a joint bombing and Janjaweed raid. He said he struggles to provide enough for his remaining family of nine to eat. "The Janjaweed expressly destroyed all our food," he said. "At the same time as the planes came to bomb, the Janjaweed arrived with matches and started to set fire to things. For six days they did nothing but burn houses and people’s food stocks." The month-long wave of attacks followed the harvest, meaning many refugees lost several months’ supply of grain. "Look," said Isaak, as he poured coffee-coloured water into a drinking bowl. "This is the dirty water my children must drink. We are still waiting for the aid workers to improve our conditions, we are really suffering." During a visit to the border last week, a Reuters reporter saw helicopters criss-crossing Jebel Moon at low altitude, accompanied by muffled booms and clouds of black smoke. "Those are the same planes which bombed us," said Idriss Abakar. "We are scared they will come here to bomb us." For many returning to Darfur is unthinkable. Mariam Issak Nassir said she was three and a half months pregnant when Janjaweed attackers forced their way inside her home during a bombing raid and shot her in the leg. "That night, as I lay injured, I went into labour early. My husband found a donkey to take me to Chad, but when we reached Chad the babies came out dead from the shock. It was twins." (Reuters) To Email Executive Director Jaime Bergerson: Jaime@teens4peace.net