iACT
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Mission Statement
iACT is a Los Angeles-based organization providing humanitarian action to aid, empower, and extend hope to those affected by mass atrocities, creating a world where people are connected and equipped to act. Through campaigns and leadership development in the U.S., iACT provides tools and training necessary to create a new culture of participation for people facing and responding to humanitarian crises. iACT utilizes innovative thinking, human-centered design, and collaborative relationships to co-create replicable and cost-effective programs in refugee camps. Since 2005, iACT has facilitated refugee-led education, sports, and human rights programs that build resilience and cultivate recovery in refugee camps in eastern Chad.
About This Cause
iACT was established by Executive Director Gabriel Stauring. Stauring first travelled to the Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad in 2005 to collect and amplify the stories of those affected by the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. At the time, iACT was called Stop Genocide Now, operated under a fiscal sponsor, and the focus of the organization was to conduct advocacy to end the violence in Darfur. In 2009, iACT formalized as a 501(c)3 and created a formal Board of Directors. Over the years, iACT formed a deep trust with the Dafuri refugees, witnessed gaps in humanitarian programming, and grew to be considered an expert in the region. iACT began its first on-the-ground partnership-based project in 2010, and today iACT supports refugee-led programs that include sports, education, and human rights. iACT utilizes innovative thinking, a community-based participatory design process, and collaborative relationships to create replicable and cost-effective programs in refugee camps. All of iACT’s program were created from needs identified and requested by the Darfuri refugees. In 2011, iACT began to develop Little Ripples (LR), a cost-effective resilience and capacity development program that trains and employs refugee women to provide preschool education to improve the early development of refugee children. Launched in 2012, the Right to Education Mobile Human Rights Library (R2E Library) builds community capacity by providing space and materials for refugees to learn about their human rights and address human rights issues. In collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency and refugee camp leaders, in 2012, iACT helped launch Darfur United (DU), an all-refugee men’s soccer team who has competed in two international tournaments. Built on the need for programs that address trauma and promote health and peacebuilding for children, the Darfur United Soccer Academy (DUSA, implemented in 2013) offers refugee children a safe place to play, move, heal, and be empowered under the leadership and guidance of trained and employed refugee coaches who teach the children soccer, peacebuilding, and health skills. In the U.S., iACT facilitates the Carl Wilkens Fellowship program, a selective program that aims to give a diverse cohort of individuals the tools and resources to build programs and sustained political will to end mass atrocities. iACT provides workshops and exhibits, including Camp Darfur, an interactive educational event. Additionally, iACT works with coalitions and networks to advocate for mass atrocity prevention such as Act for Sudan and the Protection and Prevention Working Group. Through Little Ripples, iACT has increased the social-emotional, cognitive and physical health of refugee children ages three to five. Following a baseline and one-year follow-up evaluation of 134 participating children, iACT found positive results from key indicators. Interviewed caregivers of LR students reported improvements in social-emotional behaviors of children as well as reaching cognitive and educational milestones. After one year at Little Ripples, children were reported never or only sometimes violent with other children (kicking, biting, or hitting) increased by 12% from 113 to 127. When student Saleyma arrives home from school, she is excited and talkative, telling her mother stories from school. Her mother told iACT that this behavior is a big change for her daughter. Since attending LR, her mother reported that Saleyma “counts more, sings songs, and recounts poems out loud at home.” After only a year in the program, the number of students able to identify colors increased by 89% while those able to identify four or more animals from photos increased by 200%. The number of students able to count to five or higher increased by 69% and the number of children who were able to recite at least the first 10 letters of the alphabet without mistakes increased by 84%. LR also increased the number of women employed in education in camp Goz Amer, from 17 to 47. Education Director Halime reported, “Now that I am a teacher, I have more confidence in speaking up to people in the community. I feel like a leader and I now have a responsibility to tell mothers to send their children to school.” Teacher Samiya, age 19, is married to a man her father chose and who refuses to let her continue her education. However, Samiya told iACT, “With my Little Ripples salary, I can make more decisions myself. I can decide what I do with my salary.” Soumiya is 21 and has been in refugee camp Goz Amer for 13 years. With her LR salary, she supports five other people in her household. Soumiya is proud to be a teacher and says, “I have a job to go to everyday. I feel I have a responsibility. I feel happy when I walk into the classroom and I hear the children call me teacher and they sing a welcome song.” DUSA reaches 2,078 boys and girls ages 6 to 13 in camps Djabal (956), Touloum (622), and Goz Amer (500) each week. Of 50 of these interviewed, all reported that DUSA gave them their first opportunity to participate in an organized sport activity with peers and that it is the only afterschool program offered for their age group. The program is also proving to be a critical opportunity for young adults. Female Coach Leila, age 20, said, “I never imagined I would have the opportunity of being a soccer coach, and I want to learn more soccer...Now I feel a new responsibility. I feel like a leader, and I feel confident talking in front of large groups of people in the community.” The R2E Library was implemented in 12 schools in camps Djabal and Goz Amer (six in each camp). To date, iACT estimates that the program reaches between 4,500-6,000 youth and 35 teachers annually in each of the two camps. In 2013, a year after implementation in refugee camp Djabal, at a community meeting, a young teenager who had used the R2E Library at school stood and said, “We have been learning about our human rights. And we now know that we have a right to education. We demand that you continue to provide education and not close our schools.” To this day, primary school remains open in camp Djabal.