The 10th annual Walk to End Genocide will be held today at the La Brea Tar Pits, raising funds for anti-genocide educational and advocacy efforts in the U.S. and to support projects aiding survivors of the conflicts in Sudan and Congo.
The two-mile walk in the Mid-City area is billed by organizers as the nation’s largest anti-genocide rally. Organizers expect more than 3,000 participants.
Mayor Eric Garcetti is scheduled to address participants before the walk, which will begin at 10:15 a.m. Registration will begin at 9 a.m.
Before and after the walk, participants will gather in Jewish World Watch’s Global Village, which will include displays commemorating past genocides, educational booths about current conflicts where innocents are threatened, and the Advocacy Asks booth.
The Advocacy Asks booth will allow people to contact elected officials to encourage them to support the first genocide prevention bill in the United States, the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act.
Elected officials can also be contacted at the booth to support the Help and Nourishment for Darfuri Survivors Project, an effort to bring back the World Food Program’s recommended 2,100 calories per person per day to Darfuris living in the refugee camps of Eastern Chad.
Walkers will be able to record their thoughts in chalk on why the walk matters. A panel discussion with survivors on “Genocide and Mass Atrocities from Past to Present” will begin at 11:45 a.m.
The walk is organized by Jewish World Watch, an Encino-based group founded in 2004 that has raised millions of dollars in an effort to improve the lives of survivors of genocide and mass atrocities in Congo and Sudan and educate communities across the U.S. to advocate for political change.
