3 Additional Ways To Support Our New Campaign

This is a make or break year for the 24 Nuba teachers at our schools in Yida Refugee Camp. After all these years, Operation Broken Silence is still the only organization in the world that focuses exclusively on improving education here.

This crisis started encroaching on the two schools we sponsor in Yida throughout 2019. More teachers than ever before showed up hoping for a job. By year’s end, over 1,000 students had begged for an opening. The teachers at our schools had to turn them all away. The resources just weren't there to expand.

Our new campaign Do Justice is our response. A lack of teacher pay is central to the education crisis in Yida. The goal of Do Justice is straightforward: inspire 200 individuals and families to give monthly. This will shore up funding for the 24 teachers we support in Yida and pave the way for our schools to expand in 2021.

If this is the first time you are hearing about all of this, the best way to help is to start giving monthly right now. Even if all you can spare is $10, your giving will protect the progress these teachers have made against all odds.

We understand that only some of our supporters are in a position to give monthly right now. If you can’t give, here are three other ways you can fight back against this crisis:

1. Share On Social Media

You can share the Do Justice video online. Here are a few specific posts that you easily share with your friends and family:

• Share on Facebook

• Share to your Instagram Stories

• Retweet on Twitter

Make sure you are following us so that you can easily share our progress in the coming weeks and months too! You can find direct links to our social media handles at the bottom of this post.

2. Sign Up For Our Email List

We send out one or two emails a week. At the end of each month, we send a newsletter that includes important stories from Sudan. This is a fantastic way to get the information you need. Everyone from our supporters to Congressional staffers are already signed up!

You can also forward our emails to friends and family to raise awareness about Sudan. Quite a few of our supporters do that. It’s a really effective way to help!

3. Start A Campaign

Finally, if you’re stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, you probably have a little free time. You can start a fundraising page for the teachers in Yida and ask your friends and family to give!

This is the best way to directly support the teachers without anything coming out of your wallet. Most of our supporters can raise $100 in 10 minutes. That’s money we can get to the schools in Yida right now as we keep focusing on reaching our Do Justice goal! Every little bit helps.

I hope you are staying safe and healthy. Our team is thinking about all of you as we work from home.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions. Talk to you soon.

Onward,

Mark C. Hackett

Executive Director

Operation Broken Silence

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About Us

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.

Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.

Giving During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Hello supporters and friends,

Like many of you, I am working from home. Hugs and handshakes have been replaced with Zoom meetings. Our family waves at the neighbors from afar. Living through a global pandemic is certainly strange.

Our team has received a lot of questions about giving during this time we are in. I’m hearing the same questions get repeated, so here are the answers all in one place!

I’m expecting a relief check from the federal government, but I don’t need it. Can I donate to Operation Broken Silence?

Yes you can! If the pandemic hasn’t affected your livelihood, donating your check will help people who do need extra support. If you need to take care of your own bills, please do that.

How much you give is up to you. We recommend spending some of your relief check at your favorite local businesses. You can support our work too. When you give, you are supporting our schools in Yida Refugee Camp and Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains.

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Are there CARES Act benefits for giving?

For 2020, the limitation on how much of your charitable gifts you can deduct has been lifted. Previously, it was a maximum of 60% for cash donations and 50% for non-cash gifts. Under the CARES Act, these limitations have been removed for federal income tax purposes.

Even if you don’t itemize, anyone who donates up to $300 can deduct it against other income for 2020. This is considered an Above the Line deduction. Simply put, this is a great time to give!

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What’s the best way to give right now?

There’s no reason to sugarcoat it: we’ve taken a financial blow from coronavirus. We are strongly encouraging online monthly giving to help us start regaining lost ground.

Our monthly givers are the life support to our programs in Sudan right now. We have a new monthly giving campaign for the 24 teachers we sponsor in Yida Refugee Camp.

Even if all you can spare is $10 a month, please sign up to give. The Sudanese we partner with need our financial situation to return to normal soon. Your giving helps us get there.

Other Ways To Give

• Give once online here.

• Mail checks to Operation Broken Silence, PO Box 770900, Memphis, TN 38177-0900.

• Give by stock or donate an item we need. Learn more here.

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In memphis?

Don’t forget that Soirée For Sudan has been rescheduled for August 29!

Additionally, discounted earlybird tickets have been extended through mid-August.

Our annual gala is our biggest event of the year. It provides a substantial amount of funding to the teachers and students we support in Yida Refugee Camp. Postponing the gala was the right thing to do, but it means the Endure Primary and Renewal High Schools are receiving only a third of the funding they normally rely on.

So, go ahead and register! Your tickets will provide extra funds to teachers in Yida right now. It also gives you something to look forwards to after the pandemic passes.

And that’s worth ending on: this pandemic will eventually pass. Normalcy will start returning to our daily routines. For now though, coming together to support some of the most vulnerable teachers and students in the world is the best thing we can do.

I hope you are staying safe and healthy. Audrey and I are thinking about all of you as we work from home.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions. Talk to you soon.

Onward,

Mark C. Hackett

Executive Director, Operation Broken Silence

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About Us

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.

Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.

What Coronavirus Means For Our Movement

Hello supporters and friends,

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, I want to provide you an update on our day-to-day life at Operation Broken Silence and how it impacts you.

Our leadership is following the directives provided by government officials. Here in Memphis, a Safer At Home order has our staff working from home. Our Board of Directors, who are already far more active than most nonprofit boards, are playing a larger role in our daily operations.

We have two primary goals right now. First, to minimize disruptions with each of you. Second, we have a new campaign we need to make rapid progress on.

Minimizing Disruptions

We’re a nonprofit that exists to empower the most vulnerable people in Sudan. Being nimble, efficient, and adaptable to change are essential to our mission.

This has left us better-positioned than most to minimize changes in our relationships with you. Still, you may notice a few changes in the coming weeks since we are working from home:

• Delayed receipts for check donations and stock giving, as well as Renewal welcome letters and membership pins.

• No calls-to-action around new Sudan legislation in Congress.

• Reduced promotion of our annual gala, Soirée For Sudan, which has been moved to August 29.

Our New Campaign: Do Justice

Our 2020 campaign is remaining front and center despite the COVID-19 pandemic. If anything, this campaign needs your attention now more than ever.

Delaying Soirée For Sudan, our biggest fundraiser of the year, was the right thing to do. But it came at a painful cost to the 24 teachers we support in Yida Refugee Camp. This event provides so much of the funding the Endure Primary and Renewal High Schools receive. The schools face the real possibility of significantly downsizing.

I want to be crystal clear: money fixes this problem. Several of you have already answered the call and joined. We’re grateful and encouraged, but a rocky road lies ahead. The best way you can help is to give $10 a month to these teachers right now. And your first monthly gift will be matched.

21 supporters out of the 200 we need have already signed up. That’s real progress we are making together. This is a tangible way to help the most vulnerable teachers in the world right now. Please join us. We need you now more than ever.

If you aren’t in a position to give monthly, you can make a one-time gift here.

I hope you are staying safe and healthy. Know that our team is thinking about you. Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions. Talk to you soon.

Onward,

Mark C. Hackett

Executive Director, Operation Broken Silence

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About Us

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.

Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.

Do Justice Campaign: Philip's Story

"Teaching in Yida is hard. But I have hope."

- PHILIP

In 2012, Philip was teaching when he heard a faint buzzing. Like everyone who lives in the Nuba Mountains, he was conditioned to pause. He stepped to the doorless entrance and looked up to the blue sky. His heart skipped a beat. The buzz came from an Antonov bomber heading straight for them. 

"Quickly children. Take cover," he said. They filed outside in a brisk fashion before bolting to foxholes. Thankfully, the bombs missed. Philip saved the lives of nearly 80 children that day. He's a hero.

By next week, attendance had dropped 70%. Scared families were sending their kids to Yida Refugee Camp across the border. Philip decided to follow. 

On the road to Yida, he witnessed a hint of what awaited him: scared children from across the Nuba Mountains heading south. They had one eye on the road and one eye on the sky for bombers.

Philip finally arrived after a 4 day journey. Over 100 children walked into Yida with him. With no classroom and no chalkboard, he found a tree to gather them under. And he started teaching.

Teaching is central to Philip's identity. Watching students learn and grow is far more rewarding than the paycheck he receives. For the first few years in Yida, he didn't even get a paycheck. His students were all he had.

Philip's hope never wavered. The class he started underneath a tree? That was the beginning of the Endure Primary School, one of two schools we sponsor in Yida. Those first 100+ students? Most of them graduated. There are nearly 1,000 more children in Endure Primary today. Philip certainly has a lot to be proud of.

But there is still a very long road ahead in Yida. By the end of last year, several teachers and over 1,000 children had shown up at the schools begging for an open spot. All of them were turned away. The money just wasn't there to expand.

This is why giving monthly is so important. These people have no one else to turn to. We're it. When you start giving monthly, you're supporting heroes just like Philip.

Soirée For Sudan: Bridging The Gap

Operation Broken Silence supports two schools in Yida Refugee Camp. 24 Sudanese refugee teachers and 1,200 students depend on us to keep the doors open.

With COVID-19 top of mind for all of us, we wanted to give you an update on our upcoming event in Memphis on March 28, 2020. We have rescheduled Soirée For Sudan for August 29.

While we are disappointed that our celebration is being delayed, the need for Sudan's most vulnerable teachers and children still remains. The support raised at Soirée For Sudan is critical to the schools remaining open in 2020. 

In short, we need you more than ever.

To bridge the funding gap from delaying Soirée For Sudan, Operaton Broken Silence still needs to raise $23,000 to support teachers with salaries and students with school supplies. If this funding is not raised, the schools will have to significantly downsize and possibly close.

If you have not registered for Soirée For Sudan yet, please do so right now. If you cannot attend the event, please make a donation. 

Your support will help bring Operation Broken Silence one step closer to reaching our goal and therefore, one step closer to our vision of a Sudan with strong, self-reliant communities.

For check donations, please make payable to Operation Broken Silenceand send to PO Box 770900, Memphis, TN, 38177-0900.

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About Us

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We focus on empowering Sudanese change makers and their critical work. Learn more here.

Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Give today.

Do Justice Campaign: Jafar's Story

"They shot at us and each other for no reason."

-JAFAR

The camel-mounted attackers wielded AK-47s when they raided the farm. These men are members of the Popular Defenses Forces, a feared regime militia that has wreaked havoc across Sudan for decades. They opened fire and killed Mohammed, an unarmed farmer, for no reason at all.

A regime army unit passing by saw the militiamen and ordered them to stop. Full of rage, the militiamen opened fire on their allies in the army. The soldiers fired back. Chaos ensued.

Jafar was visiting a nearby farm and heard the fighting. He fled. Over the next several days, more regime militiamen raided farms and shops. The army and police refused to protect unarmed Sudanese civilians. 

These attacks in the Habila area of the Nuba Mountains didn't happen several years ago, when the regime's genocidal onslaught against the Nuba people was at its peak. No, they happened in November, just a few months ago. 

A lot of the news coming out of Sudan is that peace is taking hold. A ceasefire has prevented massive military operations, but attacks like Jafar witnessed are still common. Regime paramilitaries listen to no one in the transitional government.

How are children supposed to learn in this environment? Many have fled to Yida Refugee Camp, where it is much safer. So have teachers. In fact, so many live in Yida that the fledgling education system has been overwhelmed for years.

We're helping by fundraising for 24 teachers in Yida. A lot of work still needs to be done though. We need 200 families and individuals to give monthly for their salaries. Will you join us? Even if you can only pitch in $10 a month, that will go a long ways. Every dollar counts right now.