Help vital relief work in Darfur, Sudan

‘This was a very traumatic event. Parents were traumatised and very angry because the driver did not even stop, he just drove away from the scene.’ Zeinab Mohamed Eisa, RedR UK network member.

TEN years after fighting first broke out in the Darfur region, Sudan is facing what the United Nations is calling an ‘overwhelming’ crisis.

In March this year, UN OCHA Operations Director John Ging told international media that: ‘The people of Sudan are facing an overwhelming international crisis that has almost entirely slipped off the international community’s radar. More people were displaced in Darfur in 2013 than in any single year since 2004, and almost 200,000 people have already been displaced this year.’

Conflict in South Sudan, forcing refugees north into Sudan, and a new outbreak of violence between militias and government forces in Darfur had forced 542,617 people from their homes by mid-May this year.

And those people are not alone. More than two million people were already displaced in Darfur – the result of more than 10 years of conflict in the region – and more than 6.1m people now need humanitarian assistance, an increase of 40 per cent since January 2013.

Mr Ging added: ‘We cannot overstate the urgency of the humanitarian need.’

And behind this looming crisis is a potentially disastrous skills shortfall: the state’s government has rolled out a programme of ‘Sudanisation’ – discouraging international organisations from remaining in the state and instead turning to Sudanese people to provide aid to the millions of people who need it.

As a result – because of our focus on delivering skills and capacity-building within communities directly affected by disaster – we are one of the few international organisations still operating in Sudan.

And our current role is vital. Many of the groups who now hold the responsibility for helping to ensure people across Sudan have the shelter, food, and access to clean water for drinking and sanitation that they need, have the commitment and dedication, but lack the experience and skills to do so effectively.

In Sudan, we are perfectly placed. From our Khartoum and El Fasher offices, we are using our experience in training and capacity building to deliver those groups the skills they require to provide assistance to people in dire need – and to stay safe while they do so.

In 2013, we trained 2,896 people – 98 per cent of them Sudanese – in practical skills including shelter provision, water and sanitation, personal security, report writing, project management, financial management and monitoring and evaluating how successful aid programmes are.

Our expertise has also led to us being engaged by Unicef to run urgently needed water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) provision training – particularly vital because in Darfur alone, there is a shortfall of 8,893,000 litres of water every day.

And our training is working in other ways. Realising the need for cross-organisational support for aid workers in the often fraught Sudanese republic, we set up a network open to anyone who has completed any RedR UK training course in Sudan.

The network now operates as a peer-support community, with 600 members, 320 of them active.

And it was this network which Zeinab Mohamed Eisa called upon after the driver of an army truck crashed into a group of children, killing five of them, and leaving their parents – and the other children who witnessed the crash – severely traumatised.

Seeing there were too many people for her to assist alone, Zeinab contacted other network members, who stepped in to help.

She explained: ‘We have been providing ongoing counselling and psycho-social support to the parents and all the children.’

In Sudan, RedR UK is providing aid workers the skills they need to help ensure people can overcome the terror and devastation of war – and the framework to ensure no aid worker is left unsupported.

But we cannot continue without your help. To enable us to help ensure Sudan’s inexperienced aid organisations can provide water, shelter and food to those who need it, and provide bereaved families and one another with the mental support to overcome disaster, we urgently need funds.

Links:

• Visit Us