On October 7, 2004 the Washington Circle, a group of women interested in advancing humanitarian issues, held their fall event at the home of Herb and Patrice Miller.  The group met to celebrate the publication of Those Who Dare: Real People, Real Courage and What We Learn from Them. Following a brief introduction and welcome from Eileen Shields-West, vice chair of Refugees International’s board, the book’s author Katherine Martin shared a few thoughts on daring and courage.  She spoke of people who make a difference not so much in loud and bold ways but through the quiet courage of everyday life.  By reading a brief portion of the book she brought special attention to the chapter which features Shannon Meehan, who has conducted humanitarian missions for RI to difficult and dangerous places, including Liberia, Iraq, and, most recently, Darfur, Sudan.

Joel Charny, vice president of RI, introduced Shannon to a group of about 80 people who had gathered for the event.  He communicated to the group that RI is an organization that dares, in the sense of daring to send staff to difficult places to document the problems faced by the displaced; daring to be critical of powerful institutions, such as the U.S. government and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, if they are failing to respond effectively to the needs of the displaced; and daring to hope, in spite of everything, that the situation for the 35 million displaced persons in the world can be improved.

Shannon shared several stories from her recent RI mission to the Sudan, telling of a woman who while fleeing her village witnessed the murder of her son and who then had to prepare his body and bury him. After fleeing to Chad, the woman later returned to that place because she felt she had to die in the same place as her son.  Following was a story of a young woman’s account of horrific violence in her village of Donki Dereisa, which was attacked by the Janjaweed militia, who began throwing children into raging fires and burning them alive.  She closed by saying that there are many people who wanted to tell their stories and needed their voices to be heard.  RI through its assessment missions and interviews is able to tell their stories and be their voices.

Eileen Shields-West closed out the evening by encouraging all those in attendance to become informed  about humanitarian issues by visiting RI’s website, then share RI’s achievements with friends, family and business associates and finally, to let their senators or congressional representatives hear their concerns.

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Lynn Lewis, from Columbia, Tennessee, is presently volunteering in RI’s Washington office.