RAISE Awareness
Learn more about the conflict and the sexual violence epidemic in the Congo, and how you can protect and empower Congolese women and girls. Spread the word to your friends, family and community.
Check out our menu of RAISE Awareness actions!
If you've got five minutes...
Collect Congo Commitments from Your Friends
Join us on Facebook and MySpace
Customize Your Email Signature
Send a RAISE Hope for Congo Text Message to your Friends
Subscribe to our iTunes and YouTube Channels
Download a Congo Graphic to your Cell Phone
If you've got a little more time...
Host the Speakers’ Tour: Raise Hope for Congo…On the Road
Join the Congo Sabbath Initiative
Check Out our Resources Page to Learn More
If you’ve got five minutes…
Collect Congo Commitments from Your Friends
Ask your friends to make a Congo Commitment, by pledging to join the movement and recruit at least five friends to the cause. Be sure to send us your Commitment sign-ups, and we will highlight you and the amazing work you’re doing on the RAISE Hope for Congo website. You can send them by email [congocampaign@enoughproject.org] or fax [202.682.6140]. You can also mail them to:
Enough
c/o RAISE Hope for Congo Commitments
1225 Eye Street, Suite 307
Washington, DC 20005
Join us on Facebook and MySpace
Sites like Facebook and MySpace connect millions of people, all of whom are potential advocates for Congo. Help us recruit them by becoming our friend on Facebook and MySpace!
Customize Your Email Signature
Most email accounts let you set up a customized “email signature,” which appears at the bottom of every email you send. So include an appeal to join the movement! This is an easy and effective way to raise awareness about the crisis in Congo.
Sample email signature text:
Over a decade of violence. Hundreds of thousands of women attacked. Millions displaced. Too many lives lost. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. It is time to end the silence. Join the movement at www.raisehopeforcongo.org.
Send a RAISE Hope for Congo Text Message to your Friends
The conflict in eastern Congo is being fueled by a multi-million dollar trade in minerals that wind up in our personal electronic products, including cell phones. Use your cell phone to raise awareness about this crisis and effect change! Send a text message to your friends asking them to join you in ending the deadly scourge of Congo’s conflict minerals.
Sample text:
Did you know that your cell phone is helping to fuel the deadliest war in the world? Learn more and join the movement for change at www.raisehopeforcongo.org
Wear the Cause on Your Sleeve
Order an “End the Silence” t-shirt and raise awareness about the crisis just by getting dressed in the morning! Click here to order your shirt.
Subscribe to our iTunes and YouTube Channels
The RAISE Hope for Congo podcast series on iTunes showcases interviews with Congolese women and activists about the courageous work they're doing to protect and empower women and children and bring peace to their country. It’s easy to subscribe to our podcast channel – just search for the key word “RAISE Hope for Congo” in the iTunes Store. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel and get notifications when we have posted new videos. By sharing our videos and podcasts with your friends, you can help us expand the movement!
Sponsor a Congolese Woman
For less than $30 dollars per month, you can sponsor a Congolese woman through Women for Women International. Your support will empower your Congolese “sister” by providing her with the financial assistance to aid her in learning new job skills and rights awareness, while also giving her hope and emotional support to rebuild her self-esteem and her life. To be sure that you are matched with a Congolese sister, please select Democratic Republic of the Congo for all three of your country choices.
Watch a short video about Sponsoring a Sister.
Download a Congo Graphic to your Cell Phone
HOPE for Congo: Download the graphic in this email to your phone or create your own 600 x 800 pixel graphic using the facts above to tell people about Congo. HOPE, a Congo Challenge Teammate, will send out an official CALL TO ARTISTS for Congo in April!
If you’ve got a little more time…
Host a Friendraiser
You can RAISE Awareness about the crisis in eastern Congo by hosting a “friendraiser.” Whereas a fundraiser seeks to raise funds for a cause, a friendraiser seeks to recruit friends to be activists for a cause. Raising awareness in your community is a crucial step in building a movement of activists for Congo. Your friends, family and colleagues are more likely to get involved in a cause if someone they know and trust asks them to. You can help us build this movement one friend at a time.
Click here for our “How to Host a Friendraiser” guide.
Host a House Screening
Screening a documentary film about the crisis in Congo is a creative and engaging way to raise awareness about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Whether you invite 5 people or 25, house screenings are an easy and informal way to recruit new activists to the movement for Congo.
Click here for our “How to Host a House Screening” guide.
Host a Congo Book Club
Host a book club in order to gain in-depth knowledge and stir discussion surrounding the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gather avid readers and interested participants to better understand the problems facing Congo and what can be done to stop the violence.
Click here for our “How to Host a Congo Book Club” guide.
Hold a Congo Teach In
Join students and activists across the country to raise awareness about the conflict in the Congo by hosting a Congo Teach In at your school, place of worship, or community center. Developed in partnership with V-Day and STAND, “Congo Teach In: Educate and Activate” is an educational tool meant to raise awareness and cultivate activists across the country.
Download the presentation: Congo Teach In: Educate and Activate
Host the Speakers’ Tour: Raise Hope for Congo…On the Road
ENOUGH has partnered with STAND – the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network – and CONGO/Women to launch a speakers’ tour of college campuses and high schools across the country to educate students about the Congo conflict and epidemic of sexual violence against women and girls, and how they can be a part of the solution that will bring lasting peace to this central African nation.
Join the Congo Sabbath Initiative
The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing has launched the Congo Sabbath Initiative to engage faith communities in educating their congregants about violence against women in the Congo. Over forty-five national religious leaders have joined the Religious Institute in calling on congregations across the country to participate in a Congo Sabbath. A Congo Sabbath project might involve such activities as holding an educational program on the DRC crisis, reading a prayer for the Congolese women during worship or planning a full worship service on the Congo. Please visit the Religious Institute website to learn more about how your congregation can get involved.
Check Out our Resources Page to Learn More
The Enough Project, the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign, and its partners have produced and published lots of great educational resources to enable you to raise awareness in your community. Check out our resources page.
Get Updates from Amnesty USA
Amnesty USA, a Congo Challenge Teammate, has a variety of resources to keep you and and your friends updated on the crisis.
Watch: Situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Blog: Check out the brand new AIUSA Blog for regular updates on the DRC and other human rights issues
Web Feed: Sign up for the “Africa News Feed”
See: Pictures from AI’s DRC Rally
