WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Save Darfur Coalition today announces the launch of Dollars for Darfur, an innovative new national challenge spearheaded by two high school students in Western Massachusetts.

Dollars for Darfur, the brain-child of high school students Nick Anderson and Ana Slavin, will use social networking websites to organize a nationwide fundraising competition among high schools.  By utilizing emerging technology and viral marketing through social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, students will be able to recruit thousands of their peers to join the challenge. Students join the challenge by signing up their high school at the Dollars for Darfur website (www.savedarfur.org/dollarsfordarfur), where they learn how to organize fundraising events and track funds raised by each school.

Almost 1,300 students have already joined the group page at Facebook by the morning of the Dollars for Darfur launch, expressing their interest in joining the competition.

“Everyday more and more innocent people are killed in Darfur. We realized that there are 27,000 high schools in the US, and if each school raised just $10, we could easily have over $200,000,” said Nick Anderson, a junior at the Northfield Mount Hermon School. “The amount of good will from high school kids is enormous, however we need to find new ways of tackling global issues, and for us, it starts with Dollars for Darfur.”

As many as 400,000 men, women, and children have been killed in Darfur, a western region of Sudan, since the Sudanese government unleashed its Janjaweed militia in February 2003. The government-sponsored genocide has driven 2.5 million Darfurians from their homes and left over 3 million people reliant on international humanitarian aid.  Aid organizations have reported that nearly 40% of those in need of aid are not receiving it due to security concerns resulting from a recent increase in attacks. 

“Dollars for Darfur harnesses two powerful energy sources, the Internet and teenagers,” said Ana Slavin, who is also a junior at the Northfield Mount Hermon School.  “We will use the connections that we make online and turn them into political leverage and much needed relief for people whose suffering stretches far beyond our imagination.” 

Half of the money raised will fund humanitarian efforts for Darfuri refugees and the other half will fund the advocacy efforts of the Save Darfur Coalition, working to end the genocide in Darfur.

The challenge will end on April 21, 2007, and the winning high school will be recognized nationally by the Save Darfur Coalition and receive a surprise prize, to be announced at that time.  Organizers hope to recruit more than 1,000 high schools around the country to compete in the challenge.