Dear Survivors, Advocates, and Organizations:

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Since August 2005, there have been great initiatives surrounding the right to return, fair housing, environmental justice, racial justice, and other violations inflicted upon the residents of the Gulf Coast. However, very few of those initiatives have been survivor led. We, as survivors have a responsibility to fight for our rights and the rights of our neighbors, friends, and communities.

There has never been a time that this has been more important. Together we can create change and start a movement that reaches every displaced person in this country. Our communities and our people are like pearls of a necklace, beautiful and rich, connected by a common thread of hope for a better Gulf Coast for all its residents.

The National Survivors Assembly will be an opportunity to: Share ideas, gather information, examine relevant legislation involving Gulf Coast issues; Compile a list of resources;
Participate in organizing trainings; Enjoy cultural events that are indigenous to our region;
and build a survivor-led movement committed to holding the US accountable to human rights violations that emerged during the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and are still relevant nearly three years later.

With the 3rd anniversary of the storm approaching and a historical presidential election coming in the next few months, it is imperative that we come together as a united front to fight for those basic human rights guaranteed to us in a number of international human rights treaties and standards including those articulated in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement for the residents of the Gulf Coast and those who remain displaced from their communities of origin after the storms.

To ensure that we are able to reach out broadly to displaced survivors, those still in the Gulf Coast region and our allies, we need your help with planning, outreach and gathering of resources for the National Survivors Assembly taking place in Spring 2009.

SURVIVORS, we are asking you to complete the national survey. Your responses will guarantee that the efforts and activities undertaken at the National Assembly are designed to address issues most important to us. Assist with dissemination of information about the planning, organizing and outreach efforts of the National Assembly. Make copies and provide this letter to other survivors within your circle. Connect with your local churches, family members, friends, co-workers and community organizations and find out what resources they can contribute to this process and complete the attached coupon.

ADVOCATES, we are calling on you to stand in solidarity with us by collaborating with us on trainings and workshops at the Assembly and rallying around those issues that survivors have identified as being most important to us.

ORGANIZATIONS, you can get involved by helping to mobilize and providing support to survivors' in order to ensure wide-ranging geographic participation in the Assembly. We are also asking you to send representatives from your organizations to the National Assembly in order to hear from survivors and be informed by our struggle. Our hope is that you will begin to structure your programmatic work, concerning the Gulf Coast, around our issues.

ALLIES, we are interested in hearing about the social justice/human rights work you have done in order to advance the struggle in your respective communities. We recognize that a large number of the issues we still face in Gulf Coast are present all over this country. There is no need to "recreate the wheel" if you have identified strategies that have and have not worked and can offer solutions to the challenges we face we are forced to confront. We are inviting you to share with us.

ALL people are welcomed to attend the National Survivors Assembly and to join one or more of the committees for the planning of the Assembly. The committees are as follows: Outreach, Media, Program, Culture, Logistics, and Fundraising. To join a committee you may contact any of the following National organizers.

If you have any questions, concerns or would like to participate in the activities, please contact me at katrina@ushrnetwork.org.

In Unity, There is Strength,
Suga Matthews
National Assembly Coordinator