Food Security Sudan Project #13955

Children face starvation in Darfur now - urgent

by Kids for Kids

Children face starvation in Darfur now - urgent

Project Report | Apr 27, 2018
Hunger Continues in Darfur. Can you support our Action Plan?

By Sage Lancaster | Project Leader

Malnourished children with bleached hair

In March Patricia Parker MBE Kids for Kids Founder had Programme Meetings with our small team from Darfur and heard their firsthand report what families are facing our of sight of the world in remote villages. Starvation is facing many families. You will know from our previous report that there is famine in Darfur because the drought has meant that crops have failed. It turns out that only a few villages in the far north have at least some harvest to rely on for food this summer - the majority face not just a failed harvest - and families eat what they grow - but even the small amount of savings at least some families have are now worth almost nothing. Inflation is over 40% in Darfur (official figure for Sudan as a whole is 37%) and the Sudanese pound has been revalued to be worth less than a third of what it was at the beginning of the year. How can families survive?

What can we do to help?

Patricia and the team put together a plan for addressing, within practical means, the food shortage in Kids for Kids' villages. We will provide 1 sack of seed (millet or sorghum) plus 10 bundles of fodder for the animals initially for 3,000 families each in the worst hit of our villages. This should be sufficient for 3 months for a family of 6. If the rains come in June as would be normal, there should then be hope of a new harvest.

We will also provide 1 sack of seed for each family to plant. A huge number of families have had no alternative but to eat the seed which they need for planting. Without help they will have nothing to plant for next year, and we must ensure that our help is sustainable.

Please can you help us fund this emergency food and seed? We must do all we can to help families survive until the next rains.

We are starting with 3,000 families but there may be many more who need our help. We have ordered these emergency provisions already but we do have not raised funds for such emergency aid. Although we have planned further sustainable projects for remote villages, we will delay implementation of those items that are not urgently needed, in case more emergency help is needed. We must have reserved funds for those suffering on such a severe level. This is how serious the situation is.

You know we are not an emergency organization, so please be reassured that this is one of our rare appeals in reaction to a crisis to which no one else is responding.

As always we are grateful for all your support, and especially those who were able to donate during the Little by Little Campaign to ensure your help went farther. You make our work possible.

Children in great need

Please can you help us provide food?

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Jan 29, 2018
Famine Disaster Relief Declares 'Crisis' in Darfur

By Sage Lancaster | Project Leader

Families Face Starvation because of Failed Harvest

2018 has us worried beyond words for families in Darfur. The harvest has failed in many villages, leaving communities with very little food and constant fear of how they will feed their children in the coming months. Combined with years of continued violence in Darfur this has caused people's coping mechanisms to completely collapse. The creation of South Sudan has brought vast inflation to Sudan - 36%. It is even higher in Darfur. £25 (about $35) is the average annual income in Darfur and due to last month's de-valuation of the Sudanese Pound, that is now worth only £9 (about $13) for the whole year. What can you buy with £9? Virtually nothing. Families have nothing to fall back on. A Donkey, essential in Darfur because there are no roads, now costs 5 to 6 years of a family's income. To lose a donkey is absolutely devastating.

Now, in many villages in Darfur, the harvest has only yielded 10% of what was planted. If crops fail there is no food. Those families who do not have animals will starve, yet the international community is silent. Patricia Parker MBE, Kids for Kids Founder and CEO, says "I spoke to two women who said they had planted 20 kilos of seed. They had saved every grain and planted each carefully by hand. They said they were going to be lucky to get 10 kilos out of the land. It would have been better to have eaten it, not planted it. Appalling."

How would you feel if you entered the new year wondering how you were possibly going to feed your children? This is a constant thought in Darfur, a desert at the forefront of global warming. What's even worse is that Famine Disaster Relief has declared a state of 'crisis' across Darfur, yet no one has reacted. Not a single country or aid agency has reached out as yet to offer assistance to families facing starvation in 2018. Even though Kids for Kids is not an emergency aid agency, we cannot stand by. The failed harvest means we have to provide millet to families. But we also cannot forget their animals. They too need help so we are appealing for funds to provide seed for families and fodder for the animals. In times of desperate need, like this, it is essential for us to have the resources to help.

Please donate now so we can act before it is too late. Patricia Parker explains: "We cannot let these families down. If you have nothing, and you have given hope, that is absolutely the worst crime. We need to be able to plan ahead to prevent disasters. People who support us regularly, however little, make an enormous difference. To give hope, and then give help, is valued beyond anything when you have so little."

Please tell your friends and family about our work. Darfur is not in the news, no one has responded to the declaration of 'crisis' in the villages, and we do not advertise. It is up to Kids for Kids to provide emergency aid, in addition to our sustainable projects. Please can you help us raise more funds to help families facing great deprivation now and in the year ahead?

Darfur Landscape

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Nov 3, 2017
Kids for Kids Beneficiary Gives Back!

By Sage Lancaster | Project Leader

Kids for Kids goat loans have been instrumental in ending malnutrition in villages in Darfur. In fact, the UN has said that malnutrition is present in every village in Darfur except Kids for Kids villages. This is amazing and so clearly shows why we must adopt more villages. You may know that over the summer we finalized our adoption of five new Kids for Kids Villages: Absharback, Fardal, Geleidat, Hashab, and Judoul! We have 87 villages thus far but there are over 900 more in Darfur that we just have to help.

We have started providing the goats to our new beneficiaries, and teaching them animal husbandry to insure the success of the Goat Loan Program. Goats' milk provides the proper protein and nutrients needed to stop malnutrition. When malnourished, children's hair becomes bleached, but one cup of goats' milk a day for 3 months can turn their hair dark again. And please remember, every family that receives six goats, grows that little flock and in two years, gives another family six goats to start their flock. The loan of goats is paid forward again and again.

Zeinab was chosen as one of our beneficiaries as she was one of the poorest in her village, Abu Nahla. Her husband had died leaving her with four children. She had no furniture in her poor hut. Her children slept on sand with no bed covers. Even buying a simple mosquito net was an impossibility. Zeinab loved her Kids for Kids’ goats. She saw how their milk transformed the health of her children, but what she did to help others has moved me beyond words. We had built a Kindergarten in her village and now every week Zeinab takes milk for the poorest children at the Kindergarten. She said: “My children are healthy now. Other mothers need help too." Zeinab was helped by Kids for Kids and recognizes the need to help other people in her village. She is truly a remarkable lady.

Thank you all for your ongoing help in providing goats to children and families in Darfur. The nourishment that goats' milk brings is irreplaceable. We hope you continue to support Kids for Kids, as a little goes so far in Darfur. Let's all be like Zeinab and not forget children in desperate need.

Links:

Visit KIdforkids.org.uk for all our latest updates and info

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