Student organizers held a press conference on September 22, 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to officially launch the countdown to Congo Week. They issued a call to students throughout the globe to join in the worldwide awareness raising campaign.

The students represented Howard University, University of Maryland, Bryn Mawr College, and American University. They issued an appeal to the global community that called for the following:

1. Call for an end to the conflict. No military solution to the conflict. It must be resolved politically and include Rwanda in particular but also other regional players.

2. Appeal for an end to the systemic rape and sexual abuse of the women and children.

3. Call for the cessation of the pilfering of Congo’s immense natural wealth by foreign corporations and local elites.

4. Call for the control and benefit of Congo’s resources by the people of the Congo.

5. Appeal for greater immediate humanitarian intervention and longer term civic and human rights institutional support.