Category: Action Alerts

Action Alerts

Dec 01, 2008

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Helping the people of Zimbabwe

Understanding the Zimbabwean crises or acting on it, is only part of the story. Meanwhile, people lack access to basic necessities: medicines, health services and food.

Here’s some ideas how you can help (via Imani Countess of TransAfrica Forum).

The UN World Food Program
“Not only are they the major distributor of food in the region, but they are obligated to respect recipient country requests regarding non-GMO seeds and grains.” You can donate online to the WFP and you can designate Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe Solidarity Fund
Hosted by Africa Action, and supported by the San Francisco Bay Area Priority Africa Network and TransAfrica Forum. 100% of money raised on this campaign will go to supporting civil society in Zimbabwe. Proceeds from this fund are “disbursed in Zimbabwe and accounted for by a Zimbabwe-based committee that includes representatives of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions , Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition , and the Zimbabwe National Students Union — organizations courageously at the forefront of advancing democracy in Zimbabwe under the most difficult conditions and fully deserving of our support.” There are no administrative costs and the funds are used to support the victims of violence. Donate here.

USAID
USAID contributes large amounts of food aid to Zimbabwe. Imani suggests writing your US Member of Congress to encourage USAID to increase its donation to the WFP.

Sep 05, 2008

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Time to end to U.S. HIV Travel Ban

TAKE ACTION! Completely Abolish U.S. HIV Travel Ban: Please write your Representative now!

Dear Friend,

Recently we celebrated the passage into law of H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (PL 110-293), which reauthorized the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to a tune of $48 billion over the next five years. In passing this legislation Congress lifted the 1987 ban on non-U.S. citizens living with HIV/AIDS from entering the United States, whether as visitors or immigrants. Africa Action had long campaigned against this shameful ban that did nothing to fight HIV in the U.S. but only reflected deplorable ignorance at the highest level of U.S. policy makers on how HIV is transmitted. In fact with this ban on, HIV/AIDS in the U.S. ballooned from being a localized problem to being the national crisis it is today.

Not only was the ban a terrible public health policy, it also seriously violated the human rights and dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS globally. It is because of this ban that no major international HIV/AIDS conference has ever been held in the U.S. Congress’s decision to lift this ban constitutes a major victory on the part of advocates and activists campaigning against HIV/AIDS internationally.

However the struggle is still on as HIV still appears on the list of “communicable diseases of public health significance” that automatically restricts entry into the United States. Please join Africa Action Board member and Congresswoman Barbara Lee in urging Congressional representatives to co-sign a letter urging the White House to completely abolish the discriminatory travel ban.

Write your Representative now asking them to co-sign the Lee/Waxman/Berman letter to remove HIV from the list of diseases that automatically bar entry to the United States

TAKE ACTION NOW!

For more information about Africa Action campaign to end HIV/AIDS in Africa, visit www.africaaction.org
Sincerely,
Staff @ Africa Action

Jun 06, 2008

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Africa Action on Debt Cancellation

Dear Colleague,

In April we celebrated a key victory when the House of Representatives passed the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation – many thanks to you all for the persistent calls and letters to your representatives. We stand within reach of total victory if we can push the U.S. Senate to pass the Senate version of this historic legislation (Jubilee Act (S 2166)).

Can you spare 5 minutes today to write to both your Senators urging them to support this very important bill?

The Jubilee Act is a huge step towards breaking the chocking chains of debt that engender endemic poverty in Africa and other impoverished regions of the regions of the world. In addition to expanding debt cancellation to an additional 24 impoverished nations that commit to use the resources to fight poverty, the Jubilee Act also undertakes to reign in the harmful lending practices of the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions complicit in Africa’s debt crisis.

The good news is that the Jubilee Act already has bi-partisan support from more than half the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Good as this is, the bill can only move forward if more Senators sign on as co-sponsors.

If you live in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York or Oregon – both your Senators have already signed on to the Jubilee Act. You can still get involved by telling your friends and family who live outside these states to ask their Senators to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.

To find out who your Senator is, go to www.senate.gov. To see if any of your Senators is already a co-sponsor, go to list of co-sponsors.

If your Senator is not yet a co-sponsor please write today and ask them to support the Jubilee Act (S 2166).

Cancel the Debt! End Global Apartheid!

Sincerely,
Staff @ Africa Action

Apr 21, 2008

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TransAfrica Forum calls for justice for Zimbabwe

JUSTICE FOR ZIMBABWE

On March 29 the people of Zimbabwe cast their votes for President, Parliament, and local representatives. To date, the results of the Presidential election have not been announced, leading to widespread accusations of vote manipulation. Charges of intimidation and the threat of violence grow daily, while the population suffers from spiraling inflation, commodity shortages, and joblessness. Ultimately, the people of Zimbabwe will determine their leaders, but as concerned citizens we can send a message to the Government of Zimbabwe, the African Union and to the nations of Southern Africa that we stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and that we support their struggle for human rights and justice.

The following Message of Solidarity includes the points outlined in such popular documents as The Zimbabwe We Want, the People’s Convention (February 2008), as well as the platforms of human rights and justice groups in Zimbabwe. We invite you to add your name to the following message.

MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY
HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE FOR ZIMBABWE

The people of Zimbabwe have been betrayed, both by the government that represents them and by Western governments that claim to support their desires for economic development and democracy. Internally, corruption, government mis-management, military excesses, and poor economic decisions have deepened the country’s multiple social and economic crises. At the same time, the post-independence promises made by the international community were not kept and the imposition of World Bank/IMF economic structural adjustment policies further entrenched inequality and reversed the initial gains made by the country. We, the undersigned, support the people of Zimbabwe in their calls for a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.

We urge the Government of Zimbabwe to work towards:

1. A new constitution, a people-driven document that ensures that any elected government runs the country to benefit its people, not the elite.

2. Economic justice, specifically:
* An audit of Zimbabwe’s 4.2 billion dollar debt.
* Repatriation of stolen assets, particularly funds diverted from public coffers to individual accounts in international banks.
* National investments in social development, job creation, and regional economic integration efforts.

3. A national “Truth and Reconciliation” process to begin the healing process. We urge the international community to:
* End the “undeclared economic sanctions.”
* Cancel the colonial debt, including apartheid-related debt, along with debts related to failed structural adjustment policies, following an audit of the country’s national debt.
* Work with the Zimbabwean people to identify and repatriate public funds that have been diverted to private accounts in international banks.

Click here [ JusticeforZimbabwe@transafricaforum.org ] to add your name.

For more information visit us on the web:
www.transafricaforum.org

Mar 12, 2008

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Action Alert: Support A Strong HIV/AIDS Senate Bill!

Africa Action
March 12, 2008

A Key Moment to Act
Support A Strong HIV/AIDS Senate Bill!
Write your Senator Now!

Dear Friend,

On Thursday, March 13th the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will sit to mark up the most important bill in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Africa Action encourages you to immediately write to your Senator to urge them to support a bill that will make U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy more effective and ensure true U.S. global leadership in the fight against the pandemic.

Last Friday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr (D-DE) and Ranking Member Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) introduced the bill S 2731, officially known as the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.” This legislation is not only a huge leap forward from Bush’s unproductive policy, which for the past five years severely limited the U.S. response to global AIDS, but it is also a clear testimony that popular pressure works in shaping U.S. policy.

While the current bill is a big improvement over the past 5 years of U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy, several areas still need our strong pushing in order to produce the best possible law. These include:

* Increasing the treatment target to 4 million individuals from the current 3 million;

* Increasing the total funding to $59 billion to meet the public health recommendation of $50 billion for HIV/AIDS programs alone and still include the necessary $4 billion and $5 billion for tuberculosis and malaria programs;

* Integrating HIV/AIDS and reproductive health/family planning programs so that women have easy access to effective HIV prevention services to prevent babies being born with HIV; and

* Removing the requirement that groups must have policies that oppose prostitution to be eligible for U.S. funding. While we do not support prostitution, it is important that our HIV/AIDS policy be comprehensive and reaches out even to prostitutes in order to most effectively prevent the spread of HIV.

The fight against HIV/AIDS remains the defining struggle of our time, as the pandemic claims more than two million lives a year, with more than three quarters of the victims in Africa. The devastating impact of the pandemic on families, communities and nations makes the disease the biggest global threat to human security and development. Only a concerted global effort will succeed in stopping this deadly scourge that has claimed more than 20 million lives globally in the last 3 decades.

As the richest nation in the world, the U.S. must play a leadership role in ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Africa, the hardest hit part of the world is incapacitated to deal with a crisis of this magnitude on its own because of the legacy of slavery, colonialism and current global trade policies and power relations that work together to impoverish and debilitate the African continent. As the chief beneficiary of some of the historical injustices that ruined Africa, the U.S. has not only a moral, but also a historical responsibility to support the African continent in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

It is the complacency of our leadership that resulted in HIV/AIDS blowing out of control to become the menace it is today. This is time to let our leaders know that we care about global HIV/AIDS, we care about the plight of humanity, we care about our Africa brothers and sisters, we care about our fellow Americans who falling victim to this pandemic AND WE DEMAND a bill from senate that will be effective in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Speak out now! – Be heard! – Write to your Senator now!

Sincerely;
Staff @ Africa Action

Mar 12, 2008

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Resistance to AFRICOM

Africa Action
March 12, 2008

Dear Friend,

Take Action! Call or Write to Oppose Increasing Militarization of Aid to Africa

Tomorrow, AFRICOM will be featured during a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, giving us an opening to resist the new U.S. military command in Africa. Please take a moment to pick up the phone and call your Senator or send an email registering your opposition to AFRICOM.

Africa Action has been working with a coalition of organizations including our long-time allies TransAfrica Forum, Foreign Policy in Focus, the Hip Hop Caucus, Africa Faith and Justice Network and others to challenge the Pentagon’s new military command for Africa, AFRICOM.

In our recent Africa Policy Outlook and AFRICOM statement we describe how this development manifests the increasing militarization of U.S. aid to Africa, going even so far as to place U.S. diplomacy and development initiatives under the auspices of the Department of Defense. You can read African voices on AFRICOM on our website. Africa Action has joined allies to launch the website ResistAFRICOM to enhance our campaigning efforts on this important issue and to serve as a central location for advocacy against AFRICOM. Today we invite you to take action – in concert with our allies – and call your Senator to register your opposition to AFRICOM.

President Bush created AFRICOM in 2007, but Congress still needs to fund it. We encourage you to get involved and to tell your member of Congress that you do not agree with the direction of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and that you would rather see taxpayer dollars go toward just security initiatives like ending HIV/AIDS, canceling Africa’s debt, or stopping genocide in Darfur.

You can call now at 202-224-3121 to get the Capitol Switchboard or you can click here and put in your zip code to find the direct number for your Senators, and then feel free to use the script below. Or you can email your representative below. A call will have more impact than an email – so if you can take the time, please make the call. If you are rushing today, and won’t have time to pick up the phone, please take this one-click action.

Thank you, for your commitment to justice and peace in Africa and for taking action on this critical issue.

Peace,

The Staff @ Africa Action

Script for AFRICOM Calls:

Hi, my name is __________ and I am calling to express my concerns regarding the new U.S. military command for Africa – AFRICOM. It is poorly structured and gives unprecedented power to the military. I want to ask ________(name of member of Congress)___________ to make every effort to create more Congressional oversight of the new command and to ensure that diplomatic and development efforts do not fall under the jurisdiction of the military. Thank you!

Feb 28, 2008

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Action Alert: Call for Debt Cancelation

Africa Action
February 28, 2008

Dear Friend,

Leap Into Action TODAY and TOMORROW – February 28th and 29th — to support the Jubilee Act!

Africa Action joins Jubilee USA to encourage you to use your “extra” day this Leap Year to call your member of Congress and urge them to support the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634/S2166). You can reach the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

The Jubilee Act promise to unshackle a lot of poor countries from the chocking york of debt and create opportunities for development and poverty eradication.

Africa is ground zero in the debt crisis – the continent’s over $200 billion debt burden is the single biggest obstacle to development. Most of this debt is illegitimate, having been incurred by despotic and unrepresentative regimes. African countries spend almost $14 billion annually on debt service, diverting resources from HIV/AIDS programs, education and other important needs. This makes the Jubilee Act the most important piece of legislation in the past seven years for the continent’s fights against poverty and disease.

Globally, everyday over $100 million flows out of impoverished countries in the form of debt payments, rendering millions of people destitute. Debt cancellation provides a ray of hope to affected communities.

Since the days of Jubilee 2000, we have seen 23 countries receive near 100% cancellation of their debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. In countries like Zambia and Tanzania, debt relief has produced great results – eliminating fees that had blocked access to primary education and rural health clinics for the poorest, helping millions of children return to school and providing access to basic medical care.

Yet, despite the remarkable track record of debt cancellation, more than 40 poor countries, such as Haiti and Lesotho, are still waiting to see their debts canceled.
The Jubilee Act (HR 2634 / S 2166) builds on past debt cancellation successes, by calling for expanded debt cancellation to all countries that need it to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.

We are asking you to Leap Into Action TODAY! Call your Representative and Senators and ask them to support the Jubilee Act

The Jubilee Act is one of the most widely supported anti-poverty bills in Congress, but it can only pass with our support. We have a historic opportunity to address the debt crisis in impoverished countries around the world and LEAP forward in the fight against poverty.

PLEASE CALL TODAY – Click here for phone number and call script
To learn more about Africa Action’s Campaign to Cancel Africa’s Debt please visit http://africaaction.org/campaign_new/debt.php.

Please, also visit www.jubileeusa.org/measureup to learn more about the Jubilee Act and its progress through Congress and to order postcards to send to your Representative and Senator.

Sincerely,
Staff @ Africa Action

Jul 29, 2005

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Eritrea Reportedly Expels USAID

Text of report in English by Eritrean opposition, Awate.com website, 29 July, 2005:

The Eritrean government has ordered USAID to leave the country. An official statement has yet to be made by the government, but the decision has already been communicated to the US ambassador and the USAID director in Eritrea. USAID, or US Agency for International Development, is the United States government’s arm for international development and humanitarian aid. The Agency has been present in Eritrea since 1992, and was the main channel for providing food as well as development assistance to the Eritrean people.

In the past few days, government media in Eritrea has been waging a propaganda campaign against international aid providers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dubbing them agents of new colonialism. Under the title ‘Relief Aid, the Other Face of Neocolonialism’, the government media has broadcast and published a series of Western aid-bashing editorials.

On 11 May 2005, the government issued a proclamation, which introduced new restrictions on the activities of NGOs. These include the requirement for depositing 2m US dollars (for international NGOs) and 1m US dollars (for local NGOs) in Eritrean banks; prohibiting the channeling, through NGOs, of funds from United Nations or bilateral organizations (practically disallowing working relationships with NGO), and introducing new levies (taxes) on NGOs.

USAID, like all other bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, channels some of its development and humanitarian assistance through NGOs. The bulk of USAID food assistance is provided through the World Food Programme (WFP) and NGOs; whereas the coordination of the distribution is managed by the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC.) In addition to humanitarian food and non-food assistance, USAID’s support to Eritrea covers such areas as Health and HIV/AIDS services, economic growth & reducing food insecurity, and creating jobs through small and medium business development in rural areas.

The US government is the largest donor of food aid to Eritrea.

Source: Awate.com website in English 29 Jul 05
BBC Mon AF1 AFEau 30/07/2005 06:39 GMT, http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Jan 14, 2005

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Action Alert : Ngugi and Njeeri Wa Thiongo Wa Ngugi

Association of Concerned African Scholars
January 14, 2005

Dear Friends,

As you may already know, world renowned Kenyan playwright, novelist and social critic Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and his wife Njeeri Wa Ngugi were brutally attacked on August 11, 2003 in an apartment in Nairobi, Kenya. Ngugi was severely beaten and burned with cigarettes, and his wife, Njeeri, was raped in the ordeal.

Subsequently, several people were arrested in conjunction with the attack, and it is becoming increasingly clear that this was a politically motivated assault on a leading international intellectual and his wife. It was the first time that Ngugi had returned to his home country after 22 years of political exile.

We are writing to ask you to take a few minutes of your time to send a letter to the addresses appended below to encourage the Kenyan courts and government to take this attack seriously, and to prosecute not only the direct attackers, but all those involved in the attack. This is not only an issue of paramount importance for political liberties and the rights of intellectuals. It is also a critical test case for overcoming a culture of silence and impunity surrounding violence against women in Kenya (and, in many ways, the world at large).

We have included a letter, both in the body of this mail and as an attachment, that exemplifies the spirit of the pressure that we believe it is necessary to put on the Kenyan government to insure that these attacks are treated in the most appropriate and deliberate matter. We fear that without this pressure, the political forces behind this attack may go unpunished, and the issue of rape glossed over. A letter of any length, either in your own words or borrowing from the language of the one included here, would make an immense difference. Please send your letters to as many of the appended addresses as you wish and also forward our call to others who might want to join our efforts. If the Kenyan government in compelled to see the overall importance of this trial, we will win an overwhelming victory in our struggle against violence against women and for the rights of public intellectuals. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Gabriele Schwab

On behalf of The Ngugi and Njeeri Solidarity Committee
Board Members:

Gabriele Schwab, Chair
Chancellor’s Professor of English and Comparative Literature
University of California-Irvine

E. Ann Kaplan,
Professor of English and Comparative Literature and
Director of the Humanities Center at SUNY Stony-Brook

Simon J. Ortiz,
Poet and Writer,
Professor of Native American Studies and Creative Writing,
University of Toronto

Manuel Schwab,
Writer

Gayatri Spivak,
Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities
Director, Center for Comparative Literature and Society,
Columbia University

Please forward additional copies of the letters you send to ngugisolidarity@gmail.com for our records.

Please write to one or more of the following contacts:

1. Kiraitu Murungi
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs
State Law Office, Harambee Avenue
P O Box 40112,
Nairobi
Tel: +254 20 227461
Minister’s email: minister-justice@skyweb.co.ke

Permanent Secretary: Dorothy Angote
PS Justice & Constitutional Affairs
Please use fax: 254 20 316317
psjustice@africaonline.co.ke

2. Attorney General
State Law Office
P O Box 40112-00100, Nairobi
Tel: 254 20 227411
no email address.
Please use fax: 254 20 315105

3. First Lady Lucy Kibaki
State House
P O Box 40530-00100, Nairobi
Tel: +254 20 227436
oafla@statehousekenya.co.ke

4. John Githongo
State House
P O Box 40530-00100, Nairobi
Tel: +254 20 227436
contact@statehousekenya.co.ke

5. Office of President
State House
P O Box 30510-00200, Nairobi
Tel: +254 20 227411
pps@statehousekenya.co.ke

6. Hon. Ayang Nyong’o, Minister
Ministry of Planning & National Development
Treasury Building
P O Box 30007-00100, Nairobi
Tel: +254 20 252299
mopnd@treasury.go.ke

7. Phillip Murgor
Director of Public Prosecution
State Law Office
P O Box 40112-00100, Nairobi
Tel: 254 20 227411
no email address at DPP but personal through his law firm: murgor@nbi.ispkenya.com

Please forward a copy of all letters you send to the following addresses as well:

1. Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya
Amboseli Road off Gitanga Rd.
P.O. Box 46324 Nairobi, Kenya
info@fida.co.ke

Jane Onyango, Executive Director:
jonyango@fida.co.ke

Hellen Kwamboka
hellen@fida.co.ke

2. The Ngugi and Njeeri Solidarity Committee
ngugisolidarity@gmail.com

3. Kenya Human Rights Commission
P.O. Box 41079-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
admin@khrc.or.ke

Thank You
The Ngugi and Njeeri Solidarity Committee.

* * *

[Sample Letter]

January 14, 2005
To Whom It May Concern:

We are writing to appeal to the Kenyan government to react appropriately and with all deliberate speed to the brutal attack on Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Njeeri Wa Ngugi and the rape of Njeeri. We write to stress the urgency of an appropriate response that will hold accountable not only the direct attackers, but all those responsible for what we see as a politically motivated attack by enemies of what Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong’o stands for in Kenya, Africa and the world.

The world community continues to watch this case closely, first and foremost because we are shocked by the brutality of this attack and rape, but also because of the grave implications impunity for the perpetrators would have. International organizations, including women’s groups, civil liberties organizations, and organizations of writers and intellectuals are but a few of the members of the international community deeply invested in how the present administration will respond to this attack.

It is critical for the Kenyan government to rebuff this grave attack against an internationally celebrated public intellectual whose commitment to his country and the empowerment of ordinary people has been unwavering. If this attack on the occasion of his first return to his home country, after 22 years in forced exile, is not condemned, and all those responsible pursued for their crimes, a chilling blow to intellectual liberty will have been dealt. Such blows have impact the world over. This one, in particular, would send a sad message regarding Kenya’s capacity to overcome its political past. This government must respond firmly to demonstrate a commitment to the political future of the country.

It is equally critical to demonstrate a willingness on the government’s part to respond to the full gravity of the rape of Njeeri Wa Ngugi. The culture of silence around violence against women in Kenya fosters repeated and widespread abuses against the human rights of women. A full length Amnesty International report on violence against women in Kenya (March 8, 2002) cites several national and international instruments that hold governments responsible for failures to prosecute with “due diligence” any violence against women. We want to express our unconditional solidarity with Njeeri Wa Ngugi in her ongoing struggle to stand publicly against the epidemic of violence against women. We believe that the government of Kenya has both the opportunity and the responsibility to meet the challenge of supporting her. This challenge consists in bringing all those responsible for this attack on Njeeri Wa Ngugi and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o to justice. But steps must also be taken to end the conditions that foster this culture of silence. Systems must be put in place, as in other countries, for women to anonymously identify their attackers. Every form of sexual violence against women must be treated as a crime of the gravest consequence. The victims cannot be left to fight alone. To that end, we hope that this administration will not set the precedent of allowing Njeeri Wa Ngugi to stand alone.

At a time like this, when we are seeing political violence erode so many countries in Europe, North America, Africa, and indeed on every continent, it is doubly important for people in positions of power to stand against the impunity of perpetrators. We hope that with your actions, you will set an example for Kenya and the world.

Nov 01, 2004

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Action Alert: The Story of Aster Yohannes and the Struggle for Democracy in Eritrea

Nunu Kidane, Berkeley, CA
November 2004

We will not forget … we will keep fighting for those who cannot be heard.

In 2000 a young Eritrean woman named Aster Yohannes arrived in Phoenix, AZ with a dream of completing her college education so she could return home to her husband and four young children. She was the recipient of a UN-funded scholarship for college bound individuals in her homeland Eritrea. In September of 2001, Aster’s husband, the former Minister Petros Solomon was arrested, along with 10 other high-ranking members of the government for demanding democratic reform. When the Government of Eritrea refused to allow Aster to bring her children to the US, she felt she had to return to Eritrea.

On December 11, 2003, as her children waited in the Asmara airport to greet their mother whom they had not seen in almost four years, Eritrean security took Aster away as she stepped off the plane. She has not been seen since. When Aster disappeared she was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, defined as someone who has been detained for the peaceful expression of his/her views.

Aster and her husband are not the only political prisoners in Eritrea. Through this effort, we also hope to publicize the repressive and undemocratic government of Eritrea which has not ratified the Constitution and refused to open up democratic space for its citizens. Friends of Aster (FOA) is made up of Aster’s American and Eritrean friends who believe in the fundamentals of human rights of all people. We came together to inform the public of the human rights abuses in Eritrea. Through grassroots advocacy, working with human rights organizations and supportive congressional members we campaign for Aster’s safety and release.

For more information, visit the Friends of Aster web site.

WHAT WE’RE ASKING OF YOU:

* Contact your congressional representative. Ask them to sign the “dear colleague” letter supporting this campaign. We have already gained the signatures of 20 members of The House of Representatives and hope to get many more. For more information, contact FOA through our web address.

* Join the Friends of Aster campaign. You can contact us through our web address, make a financial donation, or purchase a special bracelet. All contributions go directly towards gaining the release of Aster and the other political prisoners in Eritrea.

* Spread the word. It is through personal convictions that we individually inspire ourselves and others to take action towards positive change. Please lend us your voice and spread the word about Aster Yohannes, her husband Petros Solomon, and the many political prisoners in Eritrea who cannot be heard.