Photo courtesy of Daniel Morrison

This election season sure has been an interesting one. Between having the first African American presidential candidate, our nation being at war, and the current crisis in the money markets, it would be hard for anyone not to realize the importance of November 4, 2008.

Although I know there is the will and the desire for people to get involved in the election and make our voices be heard, this can be a scary proposition for anyone who is employed by, or works with, a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status, like UUSC.

There are many laws that control how these organizations and their staff conduct themselves during an election cycle. But I would argue that it is a moral imperative that we get involved in all the ways that can this election season.

Although 501(c)(3) staff CAN NOT tell people who to vote for, we can talk about the issues that we care about. Working for a nonprofit organization and knowing many people on a personal basis means we have a good idea of what community members care about and what is affecting them on a day-to-day basis.

There are national issues such as the war in Iraq, the inadequate attention paid to Gulf Coast recovery, and the genocide in Darfur.

These are issues that can galvanize people to make their voices heard.

In addition, there are many local ballot initiatives that 501(c)(3) staff can lobby the public on. For instance, I live in Massachusetts, born and bred, and we are in the midst of a fight of a lifetime on Ballot Question 1. This is a move to repeal the state income tax, which provides 40 percent of the Massachusetts state budget.

When I think of all the people I have worked with in the social service sector and how many organizations would be crippled by the passage of Ballot Question 1, I am frightened about what might happen.

Similarly, many states have ballot initiatives promoting “the protection of marriage,” a movement to limit the rights of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual citizens.

Make no mistake, people are being galvanized on both sides of these issues.0 (They call them “wedge issues” for a reason!)

As employees and volunteers in the nonprofit sector who have dedicated our time and passion to the issues and people we care about, we have a responsibility to help our constituents make their voices heard.

DON’T name a candidate of your liking.

DO make sure your elderly neighbor can get to the polls.

DO take voter registration forms to your local homeless shelter.

DO organize members of your congregation to register voters.

A lot is at stake on November 4, no matter what your political affiliation. Voting is one of our rights. For those of us committed to human rights, it is our responsibility to help make voting possible for all the people we work for.

For more information about the Dos and Don’ts of 501(c)(3) organizations, in particular churches, read the UUA’s The Real Rules: Congregations and the IRS Guidelines On Advocacy, Lobbying, and Elections.

Last December, during UUSC's D.C. Days of Action, Rev. Bill Schulz, UUSC's board chair, gave a talk on a trip he made to Kalma camp in Darfur. I was particularly touched by a story he told about seeing a woman in tattered rags wearing a beautiful piece of glass around her neck as a piece of jewelry. When Schulz asked her what it was, she replied, "It is me." It is me....

The story shows that no matter what squalor and degradation people are subjected to, they find ways to overcome their circumstances and bring some form of hope and beauty into their lives. This is what makes us human. This woman in Darfur, no doubt having been subjected to violence and destruction that most of us cannot imagine, still holds onto what is beautiful, her sense of identity, herself.

As the Olympics came to a close and we saw the athletes standing on pedestals wearing gold, silver, and bronze medals, I thought of this woman wearing the glass around her neck and all the other women who are struggling in Darfur.

Although the situation in Darfur is dangerous for all, women and girls are especially vulnerable to violence. In some camps, women make up 80 percent of the population. They show pure determination to survive in conditions of dignity. They work together to protect themselves, leaving their camps together, trying to find safety in numbers. They share their food and water with each other. They work together to form women centers and to speak to leaders about their needs.

Women and girls in Darfur are heroes without medals. Their stories may not be broadcast on NBC, but they can be shared in line at the grocery store, at your next town hall meeting, or over dinner with a friend.

As UUSC works with partners to weave a web of protection for women and girls in Darfur, we need concerned citizens to raise awareness and build solidarity in cities and town around the United States. One way to do this is to order free UUSC Drumbeat for Darfur materials to use in your community.

Click here to order free UUSC tent cards that your community can use to urge the Senate human rights subcommittee to oversee the UNAMID mandate to protect Darfurian women and girls from violence.

We need to demand that our legislators take action to protect women and girls in Darfur. We need to make their struggle as visible as the gold medals around the necks of the athletes at the Bejing Olympics. We need to remember the woman with the glass around her neck who is determined to survive, and do our part to bring hope and beauty back into their lives.

There was no lack of symbolism in the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, least of all Lopez Lomong, a former Lost Boy of Sudan adopted by a family in Tully, N.Y., being the bearer of the American flag. He was just six years old when his family was attacked by the Janjaweed and he was forced to become a child solider.

Lomong is a long-distance runner. He acquired the stamina for this skill by running the 30-kilometer stretch around his refugee camp every day.

The track-and-field events of the Olympics are always one of the favorites. During the last few weeks, they have been a staple of NBC's prime time schedule.

There are many reasons why people run, but few of them can land you on prime time television. In Darfur, as we watch these events, there are women running for their lives from armed attackers. They are breathing hard and sweating, unable to speak, but we do not hear or see them.

Gadija and her two young sons are running. Before the Janjeweed came to destroy their village and kill her husband, they were very well off. They owned 120 sheep and 3 horses. Now they are living under a collection of rags, held up by four sticks. After the attacks, they ran to the hills, but there was no food or water, so they were forced to enter a camp in South Darfur.

Each day Gadija leaves her small sons to work in the fields near her camp, so that she can earn enough money to buy food. She has been in her camp only a short time. So far, she has not received any food aid. As a result, she is forced to face the hurdles of danger as she leaves her camp to earn money. She is forced to sprint to a safe destination. She has acquired the stamina to survive, although there are no cameras or reporters to capture this feat.

Just as Lomong's determination to compete in the Olympic Games came from seeing the 2000 Summer Games on a black-and-white television in Kenya, I hope that Gadija's story will inspire you to reach out across the world and do what you can to help protect women and girls in Darfur.

One of the crowning glories of the Beijing skyline is the new National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube. Not only is it a sight to behold, it is also an environmental marvel. Its outer "membrane" captures and recycles thousands of gallons of rainwater. Given Beijing's record of drought, this is critical. In fact, over the last 50 years, annual rainfall in Beijing has decreased by 50 percent.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Inside the Water Cube we see athletes "going for the gold" in a deep pool of blue. The average Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 660,625 gallons of water, but the Water Cube's holds over 792,000 gallons. The collection of this water — this precious resource — in one building, for this purpose, is truly a marvel.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Thousands of miles away, in Darfur, many people living in camps must survive on as little as half a gallon of water per day. This is happening even though the World Health Organization has declared that a minimum of 6.6 gallons per person per day is needed to meet basic human needs.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Not only is the amount of water available inside many camps astonishingly low, but the process of collecting the resource is extraordinarily dangerous.

Amina's story is not unlike stories of other women in Darfur. She lives in a camp in north Darfur where water collection is always a dangerous process. There is water in the camp; but of the ten water pumps, only four work with any regularity. This means that many women must go outside their camps to get water for their families, sometimes walking up to two miles.

This is a very dangerous task because women are subject to attack by armed men each time that they leave their camp.

Amina tries to make the water last, but she still needs to leave her camp three times a week to collect it. Because Amina is pregnant, she is worried about losing her baby from the stress and physical toll of making the trek for water. She has a 12-year-old daughter who has offered to go in her place, but Amina is worried about her daughter being attacked and raped when she leaves the camp. Who should go? How should they decide?

Where there is a will there is a way...

Recently, the "discovery" of one of the largest freshwater resources in the world — the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer — in the Darfur region was announced, even though scientists have known about it for years. According to some experts, it encompasses 53 percent of Darfur. It would cost roughly $40,000 per borehole, and well, to connect 20,000 Darfurians to water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

Where there is a will there is a way...

The amount of water in the National Aquatics Center pool where Michael Phelps won his eight gold medals is equivalent to the minimum amount of water needed for 7,500 women and girls in Darfur for the duration of the Olympic Games.

China spent $200 million to build the Water Cube.

It would cost approximately $4.2 million to provide a reliable source of water for all 2.1 million internally displaced people in Darfur by tapping into the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

Where is the will to ensure that those living in camps have access to the water they need to survive?

The Coca-Cola Company has been an Olympic partner since 1928. This year, it is the holder of the exclusive right to sell nonalcoholic beverages at the One World One Dream 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. This not only gives Coca-Cola access to existing world markets, but also access to millions and millions of consumers in China.

China is Coca-Cola's fourth largest market. Some financial analysts project that it will become number one. Coca-Cola has created new drinks for China. And its Chinese website features a colorful Olympic theme.

Coke executives, like Marketing Director Andres Kriger, are hoping that their Olympic advertising, and subsequent brand recognition, will help endear 1 billion Chinese consumers to their product.

In addition to Coca-Cola being an advertising juggernaut, they have sought to become a positive corporate force in the world. Coca-Cola Company has released a public Human Rights Statement, expressing support for principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In its 2006 Corporate Responsibility Review, Coca-cola states, "We respect the human right principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and strive to ensure that human rights are respected by our business partners."

The company confirmed this commitment by voluntarily signing on to the United Nations Global Compact. The compact's first two principles state, "Businesses should support and respect the protection of international human rights within their sphere of influence" and "make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses." Does this include business dealings in China?

China continues to support the actions of Khartoum through over $10 billion in commercial and capital investments in Sudan. It has also served as an impediment to the United Nations' making any serious inroads to peace in Darfur. Due to the inextricable economic and diplomatic links between Khartoum and Beijing, China is in a unique position to help push forward peace negotiations. How does this complicate Coca-Cola's business interests in China?

It is clear that the Coca-Cola Company is concerned about the crisis in Darfur. It donated $750,000 to the Red Cross and Red Crescent to provide humanitarian relief in Darfur. This exemplifies their striving to be responsible corporate world citizens.

But now we must ask them to act in accordance with their own expressed human-rights principles and use their influence in China to pursuade Beijing to act immediately to help to end the genocide in Darfur. Otherwise, its silence must be viewed as complicity.

Horses are noble creatures, relied on for work and transportation for millennia. Equestrian events were first introduced to the Olympic Games in 1900, with competitions such as jumping and dressage. This summer, we will see the power and beauty of horses, as Olympic riders guide them though courses to demonstrate their grace and agility.

But in Darfur, riders and their horses often represent different qualities, bringing death and destruction to untold numbers of civilians. These riders are called the Janjaweed, or "The devil on horseback."

Backed by the Sudanese government, the Janjaweed militia has but one directive: to drive the people of Darfur from their villages and secure as much land and resources as they can before the end of the five-year conflict. Women and girls in Darfur are especially vulnerable to violence by these "devils on horseback." Armed groups of militiamen attack women and girls when they leave their camps to search for firewood, water, and grass for fodder.

Amara is one of these young women. She lives in a camp in South Darfur. Because armed groups attack and hijack many of the trucks bound for the camp, there are no consistent humanitarian-aid deliveries to the camp.

Amara has learned to make and sell baskets at the women's skills training center to supplement her income and provide for her family, particularly when rations are low or unavailable. But to make her baskets, Amara must leave her camp to collect grass.

Even though Amara should be protected by African Union patrols whenever she and other women and girls leave the camp, there are not enough patrols to ensure their safety.

Once, when Amara and two other women were out collecting grass to make baskets, a group of armed men on horseback attacked, beat, and raped them.

How can we help protect Amara and her friends from Janjaweed and other militia attacks? The answer is that the international community must make the protection of women and girls a priority and fully fund and staff patrols for IDP camps, like Amara's, in Darfur.

As UUSC President Charlie Clements wrote in his August 10, 2008, letter to the editor of The New York Times, "Darfur civilians, women and girls in particular, can ill afford a second year of a still understaffed peacekeeping force that is handicapped by political delays. Despite the politics, we must figure out the best ways to protect the civilian population, especially women and girls, struggling to survive at camps for internally displaced people."

Photo by Pierre Holtz for UNICEF

On August 8, 2008, at 8:08 a.m. (CST), the world will watch the most spectacular Olympics opening ceremony ever orchestrated. The Olympic torch will reach its final destination, and for the first time in history, fireworks will form the image of the Olympic rings in the sky. As we gaze on in wonder, we will see the power and beauty of fire.

But for many others in the world, fire has a very different meaning.

Twelve-year-old Hadija has lived in a camp in south Darfur, with her mother and six brothers and sisters since her village was set ablaze by Janjaweed militia. The Janjaweed, backed by the Sudanese government, have waged a "scorched-earth campaign" against the people of Darfur, clearing the region of millions of Darfurians, many of whom now live in temporary camps in Darfur and Chad.

To ensure that her family has enough money to buy food, Hadija must leave her camp each day to collect firewood, which she sells or trades at the market.

But for women and girls in Darfur, fire and the need for firewood is a source of both destruction and survival.

Because there are too few peacekeepers to protect her, when Hadija leaves her camp, she risks being captured, raped, and beaten by militiamen.

As we watch the opening ceremony in Beijing, who will be watching to make sure Hadija arrives home safely? Who will be putting out the fires of scorched villages?

While television might not bring the heroic struggles of Darfurian women and girls to your living room, their spirit, as they overcome all odds, truly deserves our attention.