I really would like to thank my blog buddies, MikeB302000, The Man With The Muckrake and Squatlo-Rant for giving me the opportunity to reach a wider audience in our appeal project to raise emergency funding for the NGO, Groupe Coordination Aude Mali. There is a Paypal donation button installed on the upper right hand corner of this blog with which we are gratefully accepting donations to help this brave little NGO in their long term mission to assist Touareg refugees fleeing the Militant Islamic Al Qaeda AQMI Coalition Coup d'etat which is attempting to seize control of Mali. In my original posts, the last dated Sept. 2, 2012, I tried to give as much background of Groupe Coordination Aude Mali's involvement in assisting the Malian Touareg people over the lat 25 years and their present plight as a persecuted, refugee minority having to flee their ancestral homes or face death because they are involved in the resistance to AQMI. We are limited in what we can actually say because the delicate nature of revealing too much on the internet with out compromising the very lives of all involved in the effort. I would really like to thank all of the great folks so far who have been able to give just a little or in some cases a lot to help. GCAM has been involved intimately with the Touaregs in Mali and I can assure you that every penny you donate is used as efficiently as possible by the little group to get the urgent job done1
The focus, of course is to get as many people out of harms way as quickly as possible. They are being relocated to hastily built and quickly growing refugee camps in Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Algeria. This involves transportation over hundreds of miles of Saharan desert.
I am presenting 2 videos below from UNHCR, The United Nations Relief Agency working in the refugee camps in Mbera, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. This is where Groupe Aude Coordination Aude Mali is based on the ground now coordinating rescue, transportation, and getting the vital basics to sustain the lives of these brave people. These are the conditions the refugees are presently enduring:
Mauritania
below, Burkina Faso
I think it is very important to understand that the work that Groupe Coordination Aude Mali is trying to do is not political. These are people are refugees in clear and present danger and had to leave their traditional homes for the second time in 25 years. Groupe Coordination Aude Mali has been working with them for over 25 years and hopefully, the survivors will be able to return. It's our mission to help them survive and continue their lives and traditions.
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| This is a photo of the work of the Touaregs we are assisting.This is a painted leather camel bag. Through your donation, you can participate in the long term goal of preserving their unique culture |
It's easy to feel as if this is a remote foreign alien world you could never relate to or be affected by, but I feel that this is a learning experience. If you think that Islam is an unified alien world, you could never comprehend, directly in conflict with your way of life, then take the time to learn that Islam is a multifaceted theology as fragmented as Christianity. There are so many good, big hearted Christians on this planet, there are so many good hearted generous open Islamic people on the planet, but with in Christianity as in Islam there are those who would coherce the rest of the us to conform to their beliefs by what ever means they feel they can get away with to enforce their fundamentalist ideology on everyone. It's not just theology, it political....We live in the luxury of America with the rule of law and a constitution and the veneer of civilization, but it is simply a thin veneer that separates us from the harsh reality of the desert. The struggle of the Touareg is our struggle. Donate just a little to Groupe Coordination Aude Mali by simply using the Pay Pal button on the upper right hand button of the blog. Your money will not be wasted. You can make a difference. Please help us....
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