It's time for another Darfur Friday.

The genocide in Darfur is not over, and we cannot forget the people who are fighting for their lives and the right to live in the areas they call home.

That's why I've put together a little list of four simple ideas on how you help Darfur NOW:

The Pencil cases for Sudan -KAL me and the Ravelry Darfur group have been moderating has now come to an end. We had a voting going for the most beautiful pencil case at Flickr , and I counted the votes some days ago. You can see the winners at Ravelry or at Flicr - so beautiful pencil cases!

The Darfur group at Ravelry has been moderating the Pencil cases for Sudan -KAL/CAL since the beginning of the year. The results are great - by the end of January we had about 50 cases done and sent to HELPSudan, I don't even know how many we have now!

But the KAL is not over yet. It will end on the 31st of March, so now's the time for the last push (or better said knit).

I have another beautiful crocheted pencil case pattern to show you! I feel so happy that so many generous designers want to take part in this small action to help Sudanese childern. Read more of our campaign here.

This time I'll use my Darfur Friday to make a book review. I devoured such a strong, impressive, emotional, raw and honest biography this week I have to share it with you.

It's called Tears of the desert by Halima Bashir, a Darfurian doctor who did all she could for her people, was hunted down for it, but could escape to Great Britain and survived.

The talented crochet designer Donna Childs was nice enough to design a pencil case for the Sudan project I've been running with the Ravelry Darfur group and will be running for a few months still - so please participate

We have the first crochet pattern available, so please get your hooks and make one for Sudan.

Clara designed it, and you can find it at her blog.

A note to all: please send any cases you have ready to HELPSudan now, as they'd love to have some for their Annual Craft Auction on the 24th January!

Finished pencil cases can be sent directly to HELPSudan at

Here is one of the pencil cases which I've made until now for the "Pencil cases for Sudan" KAL which I'm sort of conducting along with the Ravelry Darfur group!

For the KAL/CAL "Pencil Cases for Sudan" which the Ravelry Darfur Group is moderating I finally got my pencil case pattern done as well.

It's great to be able to participate alongside with other generous and talented designers like Wendy or Kieran - see the links to their patterns on the right side navigation bar!

You can get the .pdf version of my pattern here, plus it can be seen here (press "Read more") as a blog entry (and the pattern is even attached here - you should find it!) I wish you all happy knitting and please let me know if you see any mistakes or unclarities in the pattern!

And: don't forget to submit your finished ones to the Flickr group!

Sudan is an extremely war-torn country, and that for a long time. The current genocide in Darfur, before that the Second Sudanese Civil War, in which over 2 million people were killed have made it difficult for the Sudanese people to go on living normally, like sending their children to school.