Google Online Mapping Initiative against Darfur Genocide
You might have read many times in the media, that a terrible genocide is going on in Darfur, Sudan. To date about 2,500,000 civilians, targeted because of their ethnic or racial identity, have been driven from their homes, more than 300,000 people killed, and more than 1,600 villages destroyed by Sudanese government soldiers and government-backed militias. Nevertheless the public reaction of governments is still quite low.
Google and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum have just started an unprecedented online mapping initiative to visualise the systematic destruction of tens of thousands of homes, schools, mosques etc. by using satellite images: All users of the free Google Earth™ can now download a mapping layer prepared by the museum, which gives detailed information on the situation.
Here you find suggestions of the museum what you can do with this mapping and also other ways to help rising the awareness for the atrocities going in in Darfur. So you can add placemarks on locations in Darfur and Chad identifying destroyed villages, refugee camps, or other evidence that helps people understand the crisis. An innovative approach to collect, share and visually present to the world critical information on emerging crises and to sensitise the public!
Google/USHMM
See also the online-game “Darfur is Dying” as well as the blogpost on “Computer Games against Disasters“.
