This is the first in a series of three posts previewing STAND’s upcoming national campaigns for the fall of 2012.
Aid and Prevention: Two Sides of the Same Coin
The foreign aid budget funds numerous programs that are crucial to civilian protection. We cannot support atrocities prevention without supporting adequate funding for these programs. Indeed, funding of preventative programs today reduces the risk that we will need to spend money tomorrow to mitigate the effects of mass atrocities. Atrocities prevention and foreign aid, in other words, are truly two sides of the same coin. STAND students will use the presidential and congressional elections to raise awareness on their campuses and in their communities about the importance of this funding, and urge the next administration and Congress to protect it from cuts.
Specific action opportunities associated with this campaign will include:
- STAND chapters will host watch parties on their campuses during the October 22 foreign policy debate. In addition, we will participate in a nationwide effort to ensure that a question about foreign aid, preferably as it relates to atrocity prevention, is asked at one of the debates.
- In the weeks leading up to the election, we will write op-eds for our campus newspapers and other local media explaining the connection between foreign aid funding and atrocity prevention.
- Immediately after the election, we will collect signatures on an online petition to the next administration urging that the foreign aid budget not be cut.
- In addition to collecting petition signatures, STAND students around the country will hold coin drives to help ensure that STAND has the resources to continue pressuring the next administration and Congress to enact and fund an atrocity prevention agenda.