Congo Action Now
Democratic Republic of Congo Committee
March 27, 2011
Present: Peggy Barrett, Coleen Houlihan, Suzanne Bas-Davis, Kelley Ready, Pat Aron
Congo Action Now met on March 27, 2011 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain. The meeting began with check-ins. We were happy to welcome back Coleen and little Laelen who will be in the area until the end of April. We missed everyone who couldn’t attend.
The group continued our follow-up activities on the discussions following the Huntington Theatre’s productions of Ruined. Our major goals were to increase people's awareness of the situation in the DRC and to inspire them to take action. We think we may have reached as many as 500 people at the post-production discussions and over 70 people signed up to receive additional information. Pat has been unable to read the email addresses of 5 people – Kelley will attempt to decipher so we can contact them.
Ten individuals and organizations from the Ruined discussions expressed interest in hosting house parties or discussions. Peggy had developed an excellent set of guidelines for house party hosts. The group reviewed them and Peggy will make additions. Peggy, Suzanne, and Samba will contact those who volunteered to host. The group decided that, rather than all of us attending each house party as we have in the past, two or three of us will facilitate each house party/discussion. Kelley will send out the email addresses of people to be contacted. Peggy will contact Samba to ask if she would like to present VICO information at the house parties. Coleen will organize a book of VICO pictures that we can display.
The Codman Academy in Dorchester has asked if CAN would like to work on a project with students. The students meet every Wednesday from 1:00 to 1:30. Kelley will contact Dorchester People for Peace to ask if anyone would like to join us in this project and she will contact Meg Campbell at the Codman Academy.
Pat reported on the presentation Samba, Peggy, and she did at the First Unitarian Society in Newton on March 13. Approximately twenty-five people attended. The discussion was enthusiastic and two people from FUSN would like to host house parties. The group decided to show “The Greatest Silence” at an upcoming Friday night film program.
Kelley and Pat will be presenting before an International Social Work class at the Simmons Graduate School of Social Work on April 13. Kelley is in contact with the professor to develop the format.
Boston WILPF provided feedback that they thought the “Five Things You Can Do” flyer that we distributed at Ruined was very effective. They suggested that we distribute it to other venues. Suzanne will attempt to locate theatres that will be presenting Ruined in the future and to identify their educational departments. The group also discussed possibly contacting other organizations that had been involved in the Boston discussions to coordinate future actions.
On March 26, Congo Action Now co-sponsored a JP Forum/WILPF event with Malalai Joya as part of her speaking tour on ending the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. The event was well attended. Suzanne and Pat were at the WILPF table - they handed out CAN materials and got signatures on the IVAWA petition.
Kelley and Pat gave a brief update on the International Violence Against Women Act. It is expected that the act will be re-introduced into this Congress - Kelley will be in touch with Sen. Kerry’s office to clarify its status. CAN has collected approximately 300 signatures on our petition to Senator Brown asking him to sign on as a co-sponsor – we will continue to gather more signatures before presenting the petition to the senator.
Pat announced that the Dear Hillary Campaign has entered Phase II. The campaign will sponsor a Join Hands for Congo event to surround the State Department on April 8. Additionally, everyone is urged to go to the Dear Hillary website to sign the End the Silence petition calling for the U.S. to send a special envoy to the Great Lakes Region.
Pat will notify people of the website address.
The second annual Boston African Festival will be held this year at Boston’s City Hall Plaza on July 16, 2011. The Shalupe Foundation is again organizing the festival.
Congo Action Now has been contacted by a UMass graduate student who is looking for unpublished prose or fiction by Congolese women for possible inclusion in a literary magazine. We will ask Samba if she has written about her experiences or if she knows of other Congolese women who have written about theirs.
On Wednesday, March 30, WGBH will be showing the film “Pushing the Elephant” about a woman who fled the eastern DRC and is now working with refugees in Arizona. Pat will send out a notice and we will discuss the film at our next meeting.
The group briefly discussed developing a plan for CAN’s 2011 activities. Given the numerous activities we are already undertaking as a result of the Ruined outreach, we decided that we will focus our efforts on this follow-up.
The next meeting of Congo Action Now will be on Saturday, April 23, 2011at 2:00 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain.
Democratic Republic of Congo Committee
March 27, 2011
Present: Peggy Barrett, Coleen Houlihan, Suzanne Bas-Davis, Kelley Ready, Pat Aron
Congo Action Now met on March 27, 2011 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain. The meeting began with check-ins. We were happy to welcome back Coleen and little Laelen who will be in the area until the end of April. We missed everyone who couldn’t attend.
The group continued our follow-up activities on the discussions following the Huntington Theatre’s productions of Ruined. Our major goals were to increase people's awareness of the situation in the DRC and to inspire them to take action. We think we may have reached as many as 500 people at the post-production discussions and over 70 people signed up to receive additional information. Pat has been unable to read the email addresses of 5 people – Kelley will attempt to decipher so we can contact them.
Ten individuals and organizations from the Ruined discussions expressed interest in hosting house parties or discussions. Peggy had developed an excellent set of guidelines for house party hosts. The group reviewed them and Peggy will make additions. Peggy, Suzanne, and Samba will contact those who volunteered to host. The group decided that, rather than all of us attending each house party as we have in the past, two or three of us will facilitate each house party/discussion. Kelley will send out the email addresses of people to be contacted. Peggy will contact Samba to ask if she would like to present VICO information at the house parties. Coleen will organize a book of VICO pictures that we can display.
The Codman Academy in Dorchester has asked if CAN would like to work on a project with students. The students meet every Wednesday from 1:00 to 1:30. Kelley will contact Dorchester People for Peace to ask if anyone would like to join us in this project and she will contact Meg Campbell at the Codman Academy.
Pat reported on the presentation Samba, Peggy, and she did at the First Unitarian Society in Newton on March 13. Approximately twenty-five people attended. The discussion was enthusiastic and two people from FUSN would like to host house parties. The group decided to show “The Greatest Silence” at an upcoming Friday night film program.
Kelley and Pat will be presenting before an International Social Work class at the Simmons Graduate School of Social Work on April 13. Kelley is in contact with the professor to develop the format.
Boston WILPF provided feedback that they thought the “Five Things You Can Do” flyer that we distributed at Ruined was very effective. They suggested that we distribute it to other venues. Suzanne will attempt to locate theatres that will be presenting Ruined in the future and to identify their educational departments. The group also discussed possibly contacting other organizations that had been involved in the Boston discussions to coordinate future actions.
On March 26, Congo Action Now co-sponsored a JP Forum/WILPF event with Malalai Joya as part of her speaking tour on ending the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. The event was well attended. Suzanne and Pat were at the WILPF table - they handed out CAN materials and got signatures on the IVAWA petition.
Kelley and Pat gave a brief update on the International Violence Against Women Act. It is expected that the act will be re-introduced into this Congress - Kelley will be in touch with Sen. Kerry’s office to clarify its status. CAN has collected approximately 300 signatures on our petition to Senator Brown asking him to sign on as a co-sponsor – we will continue to gather more signatures before presenting the petition to the senator.
Pat announced that the Dear Hillary Campaign has entered Phase II. The campaign will sponsor a Join Hands for Congo event to surround the State Department on April 8. Additionally, everyone is urged to go to the Dear Hillary website to sign the End the Silence petition calling for the U.S. to send a special envoy to the Great Lakes Region.
Pat will notify people of the website address.
The second annual Boston African Festival will be held this year at Boston’s City Hall Plaza on July 16, 2011. The Shalupe Foundation is again organizing the festival.
Congo Action Now has been contacted by a UMass graduate student who is looking for unpublished prose or fiction by Congolese women for possible inclusion in a literary magazine. We will ask Samba if she has written about her experiences or if she knows of other Congolese women who have written about theirs.
On Wednesday, March 30, WGBH will be showing the film “Pushing the Elephant” about a woman who fled the eastern DRC and is now working with refugees in Arizona. Pat will send out a notice and we will discuss the film at our next meeting.
The group briefly discussed developing a plan for CAN’s 2011 activities. Given the numerous activities we are already undertaking as a result of the Ruined outreach, we decided that we will focus our efforts on this follow-up.
The next meeting of Congo Action Now will be on Saturday, April 23, 2011at 2:00 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain.