IMC Featured at Symposium on Genocide in Darfur

Santa Monica, CA – Rabbi Lee Bycel, International Medical Corps’ Senior Advisor for Global Strategy, will participate in A Call to Action on Darfur, a symposium to educate people about the current situation in Darfur and the refugee camps in neighboring Chad. This symposium brings together representatives from international organizations including IMC that are working to stop the genocide in Darfur and bring relief and humanitarian aid to refugees and survivors. The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City will host the Symposium and an Action Fair on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 1:00 PM.

Bycel has led three trips to Darfur and Chad, visiting refugee communities where IMC is providing critical emergency health services to conflict-affected families.

"In my trips to Darfur and Chad I have met extraordinary people with gut-wrenching stories of survival and courage,” said Bycel. “I have been privileged to see the outstanding humanitarian work being done by the staff of International Medical Corps who do their lifesaving work with great devotion. There is an urgency to help the people of Chad and Darfur and I feel that the mandate 'not to stand idly by' reflects the humanitarian ethic of helping those who have lost so much."

Photographer Richard Levine, who traveled to Chad with Bycel and IMC in October 2005, will have his work on display at the museum.

IMC will also participate in the museum’s Action Fair where the public will be able to learn about the organization’s efforts to provide emergency medical assistance to more than 75,000 refugees in South Darfur and Chad. The fair will take place from 12:00 to 5:00 PM.

Other symposium panelists include: Keynote Speaker John Prendergast, Special Advisor, International Crisis Group; Jerry Fowler, Director, Committee on Conscience; and Kenneth Roth, Director, Human Rights Watch.

In 2005, Bycel participated in the Clinton Global Initiative, President Clinton’s project aimed at bringing together leaders from around the world to strengthen the capacity of the poor and underserved through economic and health care programs. Recently, Bycel was appointed to the California Task Force on Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance Education, and was formerly President of The Brandeis-Bardin Institute and Dean of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.

International Medical Corps is a global humanitarian nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. IMC provides emergency medical assistance to approximately 175,000 refugees in Sudan and Chad .

For more information, please visit our website at www.imcworldwide.org.

This event is free and open to the public. For additional information, please visit the museum website at www.mjhnyc.org.

International Medical Corps is a global humanitarian non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, IMC is a private, voluntary, apolitical, non-sectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in areas worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, IMC rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.