Update - Improving Children's Health in Darfur
(Message from Kids for Kids Founder Patricia Parker MBE)
Improving children’s health is lifting whole communities out of poverty. I was stunned to hear from village elders what wider impacts something as simple as a blanket to sleep under, a mosquito net and a cup of milk each day can have. With fewer malaria cases, chest infections and other illnesses comes better school attendance, and suddenly a whole generation of children have far better prospects than their parents ever had. Add to this our Midwives and First Aid Workers, stopping small problems from becoming disasters, and you can see why children are thriving, and many more families want to move from the IDP camps to Kids for Kids villages.
Thank you to all of you who supported this important project. Healthcare has been and will remain a priority for Kids for Kids, as it is so desperately needed. We are closing this Project here on Global Giving, but please look out for the next one, which will launch as soon as we have identified the next villages to work with. The families of Darfur need you more than ever this year. Reports already indicate failed harvest – which means children going hungry. People rely on Kids for Kids, and we rely on you! Please will you continue to supportour life-saving and life-transforming work on our other Global Giving Projects - please click through and have a look: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/children-face-starvation-in-darfur/
Your support could not be more needed right now. 2016 really is the year when I am going to have to find every means possible to raise as much money as I can. The last two years have seen the exodus of virtually every aid agency from the region. Meanwhile violence continues to affect families in remote villages and the harvest is known to be only 30% of what was hoped for in many regions – places where children were already malnourished. You can see Kids for Kids has a lot to do. I cannot thank you enough for your support.
Wishing you a happy and peaceful 2016,
Patricia
Patricia Parker MBE, Founder
Grave news from Darfur - urgent help is needed.
The situation in Darfur is grave. We have just had reports that there is a renewed emergency call for help, as tens of thousands of children in the region are acutely malnourished – far exceeding the normal levels when disaster relief is called for from the international community. "It fills me with dread to think how many children will have died by Christmas" says our CEO Patricia Parker.
Kids for Kids are doing all we can to help. We have adopted 8 villages this year, 3 more than originally planned. We are also in the process of supplying what basic help we can to the 36 villages who applied to be adopted but were not selected. All of them had reported children dying of malaria last year. It is the little ones who succumb first. Children in every village are malnourished and have little resilience to withstand high fever. I am delighted to tell you that I have already started ordering mosquito nets for every one of those villages. If only we could do more.
We are doing as much as we can in the face of unimaginable need. The more support we have, the more help we can give. Please do not delay. For some of these children it is already too late.
$62 provides a goat for milk, to save a starving child
$42 provides a blanket, to keep children warm at night
$25 provides 2 mosquito nets, to save children from malaria
$95 provides a donkey to carry water
$372 provides 6 goats for a family - a chance of survival and hope for the future
Thank you for your support.
Links:
Goat Loans are saving children from starvation and malnutrition in Darfur, Sudan
You probably know that Kids for Kids all began when Patricia Parker our CEO came across a 9 year old little boy in the desert, walking 7 hours to reach a handpump. His walk for water was keeping the family's 3 goats alive, and their milk was the only nutrition he and his brothers and sisters had to survive on. This was the inspiration for Kids for Kids.
"Conditions in Darfur today are even worse now than they were then" Says Patricia. Children are facing starvation and malnutrition, right now, but we know what miracle workers our little goats are. We simply must find a way to fund more goats for more families.
Our Goat Loan Microfinance has been called the best microfinance scheme in the world. We lend 6 goats to a family for immediate milk for starving babies and malnourished children. We train the family to look after them, and the little flock grows. What is so fantastic, is that as the flock increases, the goats provide an income for essentials like food, clothes, healthcare and education. Of course the availability of milk and yoghurt in the village benefits the wider community too. After 2 years the family passes on 6 healthy goats to the next familiy and the miracle continues. This works so well, that the Wali of North Darfur has even started to fund his own Goat Loan projects!
We simply must provide as many of these wonderful goats to as many families as we can. Please do help us, and spread the word. Why not share this news with a friend today?
Thank you for your support.
$45 provides training to take good care of the animals
$62 provides a goat - their milk is vital to feed hungry babies and malnourished children
$372 provides 6 goats - enough to help a whole family raise themselves out of poverty
$600 trains a paravet - there is no other animal care
Links:
Please help Kids for Kids prevent malaria and deadly sickness bugs
As I write this report, we have so far raised 2/3 of our target to help 200 families in Darfur to protect their children. Thank you for your support - together we are saving lives!
The mosquito nets we provide prevent children from being bitten by mosquitos which emerge at night. Malaria is still killing children all over Africa and in Darfur, where medical help is virtually unavailable, more and more children are dying needlessly. We can help. Moreover, the nets that we give families have an extra fine mesh that keeps out the nasty sand flies that spread sickness causing diarrhoea and vomiting - often deadly for children already weak from malnutrition. Children sleep directly on the sand floor of straw huts, at the mercy of insects.
Our blankets are a real life saver too. Nights are cold in Darfur because the temperature drops rapidly after dark. The poorest little ones sleep directly on the sand floor with no bed, and no covering. Many children become ill from chest infections. The weakest die first. This is heartbreaking, as a simple blanket makes such a difference.
By supporting Kids for Kids you have the power to change things for good. We have proof now, in the villages we have adopted over the years, that these small basic changes do save lives. We believe that by preventing problems we save lives. We track the numbers of children over ten and the numbers of children under ten in our villages. It is heartwarming to see the balance slowly being restored as infant mortality reduces. One teacher told Patricia Parker, our Founder, "thanks to Kids for Kids even school attendance here is up, children are not staying away due to sickness."
Thank you for everything you do. A mosquito net and a blanket really do save lives. Please tell your friends about Kids for Kids and our determination to improve children's health here in the villages of Darfur.
Thank you.
$25 buys 2 mosquito nets to protect children from mosquitos that spread malaria
$42 buys a double blanket to keep children warm at night
The Snowball Effect
As the winter weather sets in here in the UK, Darfur is becoming hotter and drier, and your donations of blankets, mosquito nets, goats and donkeys are having an incredible impact out in Darfur.
The five villages we have adopted this year have now received their goats,mosquito nets and blankets. A cup of milk a day for a child in Darfur, a blanket to keep them warm at night, a mosquito net - these simple things keep them safe, stave off off malnutrition and stop them from succombing to chest infections. They are so weak, this literally is the difference between life and death for these little ones.
And the snowball effect? We are hearing wonderful reports from villages we adopted in previous years, bearing witness to the wonderful difference these simple things make. Children here are well enough to go to school, they have the chance to get an education, and some of the children from our earliest projects are even at university now, 9 years since their village was adopted. Your support for Kids for Kids means hope for a better future, and you are transforming lives.
We have a long list of villages who are hoping and praying to be chosen as the next village to be adopted by Kids for Kids. With your generous support we can transform more lives. Thank you for remembering the people of Darfur this Christmas.
With our warmest Christmas wishes to you from the Kids for Kids Team
Links:
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