Mumbo Gumbo Human Rights Benefit

MUMBO GUMBO "HANDS AROUND THE WORLD" HUMAN RIGHTS BENEFIT
SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 8PM -- DAVIS ART CENTER

Proceeds to benefit needy children in Haiti & Central America'

On Saturday evening, June 12 at 8:00 PM the popular musical group Mumbo Gumbo will play for the "Hands Around the World" Human Rights Benefit dance outdoors at the Davis Art Center (corner of Covell & F Sts.). Starting in 1991, Mumbo Gumbo has played every year to benefit humanitarian projects sponsored by the Davis Religious Community for Sanctuary (DRCS) and the Davis Friends of Rutilio Grande. Dance proceeds benefit projects in Guatemala, Haiti and El Salvador. Proceeds will also go to the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network (YIIN) to assist in support of immigrants living in Yolo Co.

In Haiti proceeds will go to support CHILDREN'S HOPE, a program created by Leisa Faulkner of Cameron Park. CHILDREN'S HOPE provides medical aid, school supplies and athletic equipment to children in Haiti's most impoverished urban slums. Faulkner will lead her fourth Earthquake Relief delegation to Port au Prince this July.

In El Salvador financial support will go once again to Comunidad Rutilio Grande,a returned refugee community and Davis Sister City in El Salvador. Funds will provide scholarships for children in Rutilio Grande to attend secondary school in a neighboring community after completion of elementary school.

In Guatemala funds will go to three human rights programs: A program supporting indigenous widows and elderly men in the village of Santiago Atitlan will receive funds to support a lunch program for the oldest and poorest members in the community.

Second, proceeds will go to COVIGUA, a program that promotes the rights of Guatemalans with disabilities. There are few accommodations in Guatemala for people with disabilities in public spaces or facilities such as sidewalks, stairways, street crossings, or buses.

Thirdly, funds will go to FAMDEGUA, a human rights group that carries out exhumations of clandestine cemeteries resulting from the more than 600 massacres committed by the Guatemalan military during the 1970's and 1980's. Since the mid '90's FAMDEGUA, which stands for families of the displaced and disappeared in Guatemala, has completed more than 40 exhumations, in spite of continual death threats and harassment by the far right.

Tickets to the dance are $15 advance, $20 at the door, $10 students at Watermelon Music, 207 E St., Davis and at The Beat in Sacramento, 1700 J Street. Children 12 and under accompanied by parents are FREE. Tickets also on sale Saturday in the a.m at the Davis Farmer's Market. People are urged to come early to the dance and bring a picnic dinner, along with a blanket or a low chair.

Gates open at 7 pm. Light refreshments will be available. In case of rain, the concert will move indoors. For information call (530) 756-6904.