Darfur Refugees Trapped in a “State of Bare Survival and Little Hope”

By donating to Global Impact's Darfur Crisis Fund, your contribution will fund multiple charities at once that are working with Darfur refugees throughout the region.

The crisis is growing worse in the Darfur region of Sudan, as fighting continues despite a peace agreement signed in May 2006. On January 10, 2007, the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels agreed to a 60-day ceasefire and peace summit, but both sides have broken previous ceasefires and there have been reports that this one has been broken also.

In 2006 alone, more than 450,000 people were newly displaced, according to United Nations estimates, bringing the total number of people displaced to approximately 2.5 million—the population of Chicago, Illinois—since the crisis began in 2003. At the same time, more than 200,000 have been killed, leaving widows and orphans in desperate, dangerous situations.

Henry McInnis/Sunday Mail, Courtesy of Mercy Corps

Refugees continue to stream into the already crowded camps set up in western Sudan and neighboring Chad and Central African Republic. U.S. Fund for UNICEF (UNICEF) reported that in October 2006, an estimated 11,000 sought refuge in one camp alone. Civilians who venture outside the refugee camps continue to be brutally attacked, and women and girls raped. Children are especially vulnerable, as more than 1.5 million children are living in and around camps for the displaced.

As a December 2005 report by UNICEF stated, “…the children of Darfur today continue to face significant threats due to a potent and persistent mix of ongoing fighting, insecurity, drought, crop failure and economic collapse.” The report continued, “People are living in a virtual state of lockdown, unable to fully pursue independent lives, trapping families and children in a state of bare survival and little hope.”

The short-term aid responses have helped to stabilize the situation. However, they require enormous effort and funding to sustain, and do not address the long-term needs of the region. Due to the massive disruption, extensive international assistance will be required for years to come, especially as refugees begin to return home.

“Promoting post-conflict recovery and development is vital to stabilizing the volatile situation across the country,” according to a joint statement issued on January 8, 2007 by CARE, Christian Aid, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee and International Save the Children Alliance.

Global Impact member charities continue to provide immediate humanitarian aid. They have met basic needs, including food, shelter, clean water, health care and non-food relief items. They have set up clinics to provide emergency care and nutrition therapy for the thousands of malnourished refugees, especially children. They have provided immunizations and emergency medicines to slow the spread of diseases in the overcrowded camps. They improved sanitation, constructing latrines, bathing cabins and wastewater drainage systems.

As the camps became semi-permanent homes, Global Impact member charities took on longer-term projects and achieved some notable successes:

Photo: Gerald Martone/The IRC

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) developed new ways to improve long-term access to water by modifying the traditional design of wells. It also designed a dome-shaped emergency shelter that is easy to erect and customize, that also stands up to Darfur’s extreme weather conditions.

World Relief installed a hand pump in one village that saved women and their daughters a five-hour journey each day to collect water. Workers trained the villagers to do maintenance and repairs to ensure it continues working.

Mercy Corps taught inhabitants how to store and cover water to protect it from contamination. Along with Church World Service and other organizations, it has trained women to build and use fuel-efficient stoves, preserving the precious wood resource and resulting in fewer dangerous trips outside the camps gathering firewood. In the process, some women have gained a means of income by selling the improved stoves.

Save the Children has incorporated Plumpy’nut into the nutrition programs, enabling aid workers to treat many thousands more malnourished children than would otherwise have been possible. This enriched peanut butter paste allows mothers to treat their own children and frees medical staff and clinics for more severe cases. In November 2006, Save the Children distributed 6,147 tons of food to 417,584 children and adults in 45 locations.

As the crisis continues, charities are focusing more on the long-term needs of the population. Agencies are rebuilding and rehabilitating schools and sponsoring safe places and recreational activities for children and women, enabling them to learn vocational skills.

Food security and skills training are critical needs. CARE works to improve food security and employment opportunities by providing farm tools and seeds and creating short term employment opportunities. Near East Foundation has started a microfinance program to help women find ways of earning income.

These are just a few of the activities of Global Impact member charities are undertaking to save lives now in Darfur. (To see a more complete list, click here.)

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