Promoting a project in Spain is no easy task, especially if you are a foreigner, not fluent, and not working with a well-known organization. Yet, still there are some things that can be accomplished in spite of obstacles.

What is really important is desire and pro-activity. In 2007, I was living in Spain and was searching for a project that I could sink my teeth into. Like many, I was feeling deeply disturbed by the overall mass of human rights violations that had been (and continue) occurring in Darfur.

By chance, while perusing the internet, I came across some video clips and photos of the Darfur/Darfur exhibit that took place at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. I felt extremely moved by the speakers and the photos, and I knew that I had found a new project.

That night I wrote Leslie Thomas, the curator of Darfur/Darfur, to inquire if she had any interest in bringing the exhibit to Spain. At that point, we began to work together.

Before I started this project, I randomly asked people if they knew about Darfur. Most often, I discovered that my randomly selected participants didn’t even know what Darfur was let alone what had been happening there. I felt a mixture of feelings about this that ranged from stunned to sadness.

I knew I wanted to make a dent, even if it was small in the chain of efforts that gave recognition to the genocide that was taking place. I felt that as a human being I could no longer sit, watch, and feel helpless; instead perhaps developing this project was one way I could make a difference.

I used the internet to identify social oriented foundations and associations, including those affiliated with banks, NGO’s, art, photography, and cultural museums and international photography festivals, any organization that had a cooperative or immigrant focus, university departments of culture and cooperation and development, city halls and regional government office departments for culture, cooperation and development.

Within Cantabria, I made some in-person presentations and tried to create interest to develop some sort of collaboration. Additionally, I learned through Leslie Thomas that UNHCR/ACNUR had interest in the Darfur/Darfur exhibit. As a result of her contact, I began collaborating with the UNHCR/ACNUR and my proposal was made available to be passed around to their contacts.

As spectacular as the Darfur/Darfur exhibit is, I had a few challenges to contend with in order to develop some real interest. In my experience in Spain, connections matter. I was a foreigner and unaffiliated with any organization attempting to gain interest in a project that required a large financial commitment.

As an individual, unaffiliated I kept finding myself unable to seal any agreements. I found a lot of interest. But in the end, I don’t know if it was the cost of the exhibit or the fact that I wasn’t presenting myself as a representative of UNHCR/ACNUR or Amnesty International or the like. I was one person trying to do something I thought was important and spectacular.

Perhaps that was not enough. I turned back to my contact at UNHCR/ACNUR and I proposed that they takeover the contacts I had made with some organizations I thought had some interest, as well as following through with their own contacts. After all, they had a name, a reputation, and were established.

Perhaps in the eyes of these organizations UNHCR/ACNUR could be trusted and it was unusual for a foreigner to make cold call solicitations about a project that also happen to require a commitment of time and money.

In 2008, three exhibits were scheduled in Valencia, Bilboa, and Madrid, as a result of the efforts made by the UNHCR/ACNUR. Although, my initial vision never got fully realized my proposal offered a platform for these three events to work from.

I think it is our responsibility as human beings to make a strong stand against all human rights violations and to pay attention to what is happening to others around the world, as difficult and as hard as that may be. It is hard and the sadness makes you want to close your eyes or turn away.

But we can’t. We have to look right at it and do something, anything that brings attention, big or small.

I think that is the most important thing.