By Patricia Parker MBE | Founder
Darfur is the size of France or Texas, so it is not surprising that conditions vary across such a vast region. It has been a year of struggle in Darfur, with droughts causing massive hardship across the entire area. The UN reported that children were malnourished in all of the 900 villages, except in the 78 Kids for Kids' villages where there was no malnutrition, thanks to our goats and livelihood projects which help individual families and transform whole communities. The hair of almost all the children has been bleached of colour - a sure sign of a virtually total lack of protein. It means that bones,teeth and braincells are also compromised.
Then blessedly the rains came early. People rushed out to plant their preciously guarded seed. It is hard working the ground in Darfur and people do not have farm tools. Many are forced to lash stones to sticks to use as hoes. But then came disaster in the far north. From Um Ga'al, the first Kids for Kids' village which we adopted in 2001, and which has doubled in size thanks to our projects, Abdulla sent us this message "Please can you help my people? There has been a flash flood in our village. Many goats and sheep have been drowned. Further up people have drowned too. A whole side of our valley has been washed away and all the seed we planted has gone. We need your help or my people will ot be able to eat next year."
In Darfur people are subsistence farmers. They eat what they grow. They have no other income. Without our help, despite the harvest across Sudan being predicted to be the best in years, in parts of Darfur children will be at risk of starvation because of the floods. We are asking help not just for seed, but also for farm tools, donkey ploughs, which are shared between three families, and goats, so the children have milk. This is likely to be their only source of protein - but one cup a day will turn their hair back to beautiful black.
Thank you for all your support. Without you the children of Darfur will be forgotten.
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