Children face starvation in Darfur now - urgent

Since our last report the situation in Darfur has continued to worsen.  Kids for Kids remains the only organisation specifically helping villagers.  Although large parts of the country are in dire need of humanitarian aid, armed conflict and the lack of infrastructure make it difficult for international organisations to reach the population in need.  (SOS Children's Villages Aug 2013).  Emergency aid for those in the camps is inadequate, but there is no help whatsoever for two thirds of the population in the villages of Darfur struggling to cope with the direct and indirect effects of years of violence, loss of even the most basic health care, and now, soaring inflation.    Many villagers have cut down their food to one, pitifully small, meal a day.    Families can no longer afford protein in any form.   This has dire consequences, especially for children.  

Last month the villagers were dealt another blow.  The Government oil subsidy has just been cut.  This will result in everything that is sent from outside Darfur, costing more to transport, leading to even higher prices for everything, including the most basic essentials.  In Nyala in South Darfur traders in the market ecently reported price rises of 500% (Sudan Tibune, 2013). 

The future for the invisible children of Darfur is bleak.  The UN warned of famine, and we see in the villages of Darfur the affects of hunger and shockingly inadequate diet.   For the past twelve years Kids for Kids has been providing a package of life changing projects, simple grassroots initiatives, such as a microfinance scheme based on the loan of 6 goats to a family, which pass on 6 after 2 years.   Even this Goat Loan on its own transforms lives, but linked to our
provision of handpumps, donkeys, ploughs, blankets, mosquito nets and much more, and the training of village midwives, paravets and first aid workers, our projects are lifting people out of abject poverty and transforming whole
communities. 

Kids for Kids has shown that our simple help can change lives.  Only last week, a lady called Khajida told our Programme Manager that when she passed on six healthy kids to another family in 2007, she was left with a flock
of 20 goats.  The income that these generated for her enabled her not only to improve the basic conditions of their
lives, but to pay for the schooling of all of her children.  Two have now completed their schooling.  When you think that only 5% of children complete their schooling, you can see how important the goat loan was to her family.

In 2013 Kids for Kids has seen a reduction in the number of donations received  due to world economics yet more people need our help.  Our goats are transforming lives, not only do they give immediate nutrition from their milk but they help families build a viable future too.  The price of one goat now costs £60 ($95).  Never before has our help been so vital.  Thank you for supporting this project - your kindness has made a difference but please tell people what you know about Darfur and encourage them to help too.  Children need our help and people are desparate.

Twelve years on from starting the charity I have never been more worried about the children in Darfur than now. Despite the generosity of our supporters the news is worse now than when we first reported that children were dying in the villages of Darfur from starvation.  The price of goats has shot up to £60 ($92).   When we first posted this project in April we were paying only £28 ($ 43) for a goat.   Goats should be at their lowest price now because
as people sell them to feed their children. There is nothing growing to eat until the next harvest which is
still several months away.  That the prices are at their highest so far is shocking and means there will be worse news to come.

In the wake of the creation of South Sudan, the absence of aid workers from the large agencies in Darfur, and disasters elsewhere in the world, Darfur has been left as a forgotten region.  Violence has been worsening by the month, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their villages since January.  Our remit has always been to help families to stay in their homes and to give them a chance of a better future.  Mothers are once again facing the prospect of not being able to feed their children so our help becomes more vital than ever as more and more families run out of seed.    We are calling for seed for people to plant so they have food for next year, and goats so the children have urgently needed milk - and if the crop is not successful enough to provide food for the year,  the small livelihood goats milk, yoghourt and cheese will provide, will save the children from starvation. 

Thankfully there is positive news as well.  In some areas the rain has started to fall again and it is time for planting, for those who have seed.  Thank you to all of you who have already donated for seed, and for goats, but we
need more.   We will be delivering seed to Hilat Ibrahim and Um Ga’al next week, but four more villages are waiting for our help. Without seed they will have no food for next year.  Without goats their children will have no protein.  Your help has never meant more.”