The Passing of Two Upstanders

from John Prendergast, Co-Founder of The Sentry

The Passing of Two Upstanders

The world lost two relentless advocates for social justice last week when Gabriel Stauring and Katie-Jay Scott were killed in a car accident. Gabriel and Katie-Jay were the founders of iAct and longtime anti-genocide activists. I worked closely with them on a number of initiatives since the mid-2000s, including our Darfur Dream Team, which helped enhance education in the Darfur refugee camps in Chad. The two of them founded Little Ripples, which was a groundbreaking educational initiative supporting refugees in Chad and many other places around the world. Gabriel and Katie-Jay gave everything they had, everything they could, to those driven from their homes and across borders. But they did it with complete humility, in total partnership, side by side with the refugees.

In our book The Enough Moment, Don Cheadle and I profiled Gabriel as the embodiment of a citizen upstander. Gabriel said this to us in the book: “My iACT team is made up of regular citizens that feel a need to embrace responsibility and do all in our power to make a difference in the lives of the very real human beings that are the victims of mass atrocities and genocide. It is very personal. I do this for all the children I have met on my trips to refugee camps, but I also do it for my own children.”

A world without Katie-Jay and Gabe is unfathomable to me at the moment. I hope that, in their memory, you will consider donating to the GoFundMe campaign for their surviving children and keep them in your prayers.