the beginning of the end

Click here to check out our new video.  This is a trailer of sorts, made with footage from our last trip.  The goal is to give a brief overview of the story of displacement, then show how Give Us Names plans to bring this injustice to an end.

from the campaign trail

With the Colombia Presidential election on the horizon, most of the reports from the country have centered on politics.  Whose leading in the polls?  What do they stand for?  How different may the Republic of Colombia look in the coming years?  Absent from the limelight are the victims of violence, still silently suffering.  A new report from the Red Cross documents over 800 abuses to international humanitarian law in Colombia over the past year.  We hope that the Presidential candidates will make it a priority to address these infractions in their campaigns.  Click here to read a Reuters article on the situation.

the shape of things to come

We stepped off the plane in late December.  Colombia became a memory, a fading Polaroid, a time and place that couldn't coexist with Christmas trees, sugar cookies, and snow storms.

Then, the New Year.  New city, new house, new jobs.  Five of us moved into a two-bedroom flat.  Give Us Names now had a headquarters.  The story of displacement's end now had a street address.  The past few months have been a transition.  This thing has moved beyond the idealistic dreaming of a couple of college kids.  We now realize that there are over three million Colombians whose lives hang in the balance of our work.  This story is bigger than us.  So, we've been plotting, talking, and working.  Here's how this thing will play out:

To do our part to bring an end to Colombian displacement, we want to introduce you to the displaced. We’re going to make a series of short films. Each one will focus on the life of one Colombian affected by displacement. Each film will be a part of a campaign focusing on a solution.

One short film. One person’s situation. One practical solution.

That's the blueprint:  solving the puzzle of displacement one piece at a time.  We're now preparing to work on the first film.  We need your help and continued support to be able to tell this story.

Welcome to the beginning of the end.

Good advice

A good friend of mine just sent me this little slice of wisdom over gchat:

i'm starting to think a huge part of success is not losing spirit

I feel that right now. Deeply. About as deeply as I ever have in the history of this organization. Things in the Give Us Names house have been slow going, moving back into a house in Atlanta, trying to pay bills, trying to feel settled. It's all a little overwhelming sometimes. That being said, I feel like there is no better place for us to be right now. Granted, I say that probably only half believing it, but there is something incomparably valuable about a good old fashioned hard time that is rare to come by in our world of seemingly indefinite resource.

Hopefully we can all identify with that a little bit right now. For many of us, whether coming out of college, or looking at a less than certain retirement, our dreams and presuppositions of what our lives might look like, the ones that we had only a year ago, have shifted a great deal.

The Challenge

How do you react once you’ve heard a story that changed your life? Do you put it on the shelf as another sad tale that displays the hurt and pain that fills the world?  Or do you commit to reshaping your life in the hope that there is some way that you can make a difference?  This is the situation that we now face as an organization.  After hearing countless tales of mothers losing sons, wives becoming widows, and people losing faith in life, we must make a decision.  Without action, our trip can easily turn into a cool photo album and cocktail conversations about traveling in South America.  Many people would commend our sense of adventure and the courage it took to put ourselves in harm’s way for the sake of others.  But what about the people we shed tears with?  The ones we broke bread with and shared our visions of a better Colombia in their living rooms?  Will they be content as they fade into our past knowing we gave up on them and the stories they gave us?

Michael Jordan once said, “I can accept failure… But I can’t accept not trying.”  I think that is where I am right now.  If our group gives everything we possibly can towards this dream in Colombia, then I can sleep at night knowing I did what I could.  What I cannot do is let this thing die without a fight.  In my heart, I believe it can be done.  It won’t be easy or convenient, and it won’t happen overnight.  But if we can unite people to help us fight for change, I will one day sit back down with my friends in Colombia and can look them in the eyes without flinching.  In my heart I will know that we did whatever we could to bring their stories to you, and did anything it took to deliver the hope, justice, and peace they thirsted for.  Please join us as we begin this crucial phase of work here in the States.

-ZHM