Meet the GIF Staff

Mark Hanis & Andrew Sniderman
Ending Genocide

By Erica Lee Schlaikjer


Genocide is an unconventional problem that requires an equally unconventional solution. Two enterprising student activists think they have found an “unprecedented opportunity” to end the mass killing in Darfur, Sudan.

Working from the basement office of an administrative building at Swarthmore College, Andrew Sniderman, 23, and Mark Hanis, 21, created the Genocide Intervention Fund, an organization that calls on private citizens and government officials to support African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

”We’re asking people to think outside of the box and take a more sophisticated look at the problem,” Sniderman says. “We wanted to shame the world into acting.”

Since February 2003, during what has been dubbed “Rwanda in slow motion,” the Sudanese genocide has resulted in the deaths of more than 380,000 people and displaced almost 3 million, according to some reports. The United Nations has described it as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Traditional responses to such crises usually involve sending relief aid in the form of food or medical supplies, but GIF president Hanis and vice president Sniderman decided a different approach would be more effective.

“This isn’t a natural disaster; this is man-made,” Hanis says. “Therefore, negotiations need to take place, and sending rice doesn’t do that.”

Through a combination of education, advocacy, fundraising, and campaigning, GIF offers direct financial assistance to under-funded peacekeepers already on the ground, helping them monitor cease-fire agreements, protect the delivery of aid convoys, and regularly patrol refugee camps. Contrary to what some skeptics think, GIF does not endorse violence or mercenary armies.

“We’re not supporting lethal weapons; we’re not providing guns and bullets,” Hanis says. Instead, the goal of GIF is to help peacekeepers purchase planes, Walkie-Talkies, maps, tents, and other logistical equipment, while also pressuring governments and the U.N. to take more legislative action.

Hanis and Sniderman teamed up at the end of summer 2004, after hearing the U.S. Congress formally declare genocide in Darfur. Hanis, the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, already had experiences dealing with issues of international social justice. He took a semester off to intern at the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Court of Sierra Leone, held an internship in New York City with DarfurGenocide.org, and received a fellowship from Res Publica, an organization dedicated to public service. Sniderman, a political science and philosophy major, said he didn’t know much about the Darfur crisis until Congress declared genocide in the region. But out of frustration with “a chronic pattern of inaction in the face of genocide,” he felt compelled to take action.

“Why shouldn’t we care?” he says. “As frightening as it is to look at the problem, it’s even more frightening to look away.”

The Swarthmore duo spent the next few months compiling information about the crisis, inspired by the work of people like Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the former Force Commander of the U.N. Mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, and Samantha Power, Pulitzer prize-winning author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.

During fall break, Hanis compiled a “do-it-yourself” kit of different documents, “providing easy-to-do steps for any individual to take action against genocide,” he says. The kit included major news stories, relevant legislative records, letter-writing tips, information about divestment as a way to cut off revenue from perpetrators of violence, and other educational resources.

Working within the framework of the Canadian government’s “Responsibility to Protect” report, published to address questions of humanitarian intervention, Hanis and Sniderman developed a proposal to end genocide in Darfur. They presented their plan to as many academics and policymakers as they could, pulling all-nighters to make phone calls and write emails. They eventually received the support of the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

“You’d be amazed at what you can do if you forgo sleep and use Google,” Sniderman says.

By October 2004, Hanis and Sniderman posted their comprehensive fundraising and campaign proposal online using their school’s Blackboard Community System. The fund expanded as its founders recruited more students, established media contacts, and created a mailing list. By the end of the year, GIF received some seed funding from Swarthmore, which included office space, a phone line, computers, and a printer.

“Students and any individual can become engaged in stopping a genocide,” Hanis says. “It’s intimidating to hear that 15,000 people die every month, but you can either ignore it or do something about it.”

In January 2005, GIF received official backing from the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia. By April, GIF had launched a “100 Days of Action” campaign, commemorating the worst days of the Rwandan genocide 10 years earlier, with the goal of raising one million dollars and receiving 100,000 signatures from government officials to support an end to genocide in Darfur.

“Right now, our base is students because they are passionate, or maybe just naïve, or because they actually have real dreams,” Hanis says. “But we don’t want to be limited to just students. This is something everyone can do, and should do.”

The Genocide Intervention Fund hopes to become a permanent organization in Washington, D.C. and perhaps expand worldwide. “We think we made a tremendous amount of progress,” Sniderman says. “There is a tremendous amount of inertia on behalf of the government and everyday citizens who don’t care enough to raise their voices, but we’re fighting and beating it everyday.”

INTERVENTION: HOW YOU CAN FORM AN ACTION GROUP

THE GENOCIDE INTERVENTION FUND, www.genocideinterventionfund.org, encourages student activism on college campuses across the country, not just at its home base in Swarthmore, P.A. The “Take Action” link includes information on current anti-genocide legislation, a divestment campaign against the Khartoum regime in Sudan, and education materials. The “Do-It-Yourself Kit” outlines a comprehensive step-by-step plan for college students on how to lobby legislators, write letters to the U.N., organize protests, launch fundraising campaigns, and organize other awareness efforts. Check back for updates on new campaigns and legislative hearings.

GOT A DIME? You can make an online tax-exempt financial donation to support GIF’s operations at www.genocideinterventionfund.org. In-kind donations can be mailed to: Genocide Intervention Fund, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, P.A 19081

WANT TO VOLUNTEER? GIF welcomes applications from students across the country who wish to volunteer as summer interns at its headquarters near Philadelphia, as well as in remote locations, if positions are available.