Emmanuel Jal teaches us that sometimes we need to lose to win

I’ve fought many up-hill battles in the legislature and side-by-side with many of the coalitions that I’ve been a part of. Many of these battles that I’ve fought for include the Genocide in Darfur, LGBT issues and for health insurance reform. When I really look at it I’ve been a part of these issues for many negative reasons, lack of peace and protection in Darfur, lack of equality for the LGBT community and mistreatment and lack of security in the health insurance industry. While the reasons are horrific and unjust, the beauty behind it is that the goal is to turn those negatives into positives.

In this video, Emmanuel Jal demonstrates that it often takes being part of a bad situation (and in his case, as a child soldier in Sudan, a horrible situation) to make you want to turn it around. His story is one to be told. Saved by a British aid worker after five years as a war child, and being a veteran of two civil wars and seeing thousands of other child soldiers die, Emmanuel was given a new lease on life. He now has been touring the world, spreading his message of a need for education and the tools to help them bring peace to their country via his music. He’s even given up two meals a day, and asking to people to pledge money while he does this, in order to build a school in Sudan in honor of the woman who rescued him.

While Emmanuel’s story of being a child soldier is incredibly disturbing and horrifying, the beauty of it is that he’s sharing the story of his country and has inspired thousands of people to help out.

So aside from the fact that we should all do our part to help cease the genocide in Darfur, there’s something really important that we can learn from this. Whether you’re marching for the right for same-sex couples to marry with your partner or you’re writing a letter to your elected official urging them to support health insurance reform because you currently can’t afford it, there’s hope. Why? Because passion never grows out of people feeling comfortable. And it’s passion that really moves people.

So when you’re fighting for an issue that you feel passionate about, remember, it might not happen today, but if you keep sharing your story, that day will come.

Report card for Save Darfur: A+

The genocide in Darfur is a grave crisis that I am extremely passionate about. I’ve been pursuing my PhD at Arizona State University's School of Justice and Social Inquiry, focusing on armed conflict and genocide in Africa, to help me better understand how I can help make a difference in this horrific situation.

Save Darfur sets the standard for how Coalitions should be run. Visit their website and you won’t see “Save 100,000 people in Darfur by 2010!” and “Stop all genocide NOW!” While of course, I’m sure they have goals similar to these, they aren’t focusing on the outcomes. Using outcomes can negatively affect your coalition in a couple ways.

For one, as a single person who’s just looking to help out in whatever way they can, “Save 100,000 people in Darfur this year,” just on their own seems almost impossible. Whereas, promoting values, as Save Darfur does, make their actions seem more feasible. For instance, they promote peace. Someone who is looking to take small steps will feel like peace is more attainable – because for one, it’s not on a deadline, and for two, little steps can help bring peace, piece by piece.

Secondly, it’s a lot harder to get people to rally around a goal than it is to get them to rally around a value. Ask around and I’m sure you won’t find many people who are gung-ho on the specific outcome of saving 100,000 people from genocide within a year. However, ask those same people if they’re passionate about peace, protection and justice, and your group will grow exponentially.

Because they promote values over outcomes, Save Darfur is at the top of the class.