300,000 meals delivered to starving families in Sudan!

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a  savagely brutal rebel group has been attacking villages along the D.R. Congo border with Sudan.  They burn homes down, loot villages, steal food, behead men, rape and murder women and abduct children then drug them and force them to become cold blooded murderers. Thousands of families have been caught up in these attacks, those fortunate enough to survive have fled into the forests and jungles and are living under grass, leaves and tree branch shelters.

In recent months these attacks have increased dramatically leaving thousands of “Internally Displaced People’s” (IDP’s) without possession’s , proper shelter., even food. Our Sudanese friends sent us an urgent and desperate plea for help and assistance. We did our research, gathered information, carried out assessments and discovered that these people were not receiving any assistance at all.

The security situation was poor, the risks high, the obstacles difficult, but these poor families needed urgent help, we made a decision to respond, our team went in, purchased 47 tons of emergency food aid and personally delivered it directly into the hands of the victims.

Charles’ 25-year-old wife was brutally raped and abducted by the LRA in September, during an attack on his village, he and his sons managed to escape into the forest, making their way to Kassia. He has heard nothing from or about her since the attack, and fears that she is dead.

Apart from being friends, all three of these mothers (Paulina, Severina and Nora) witnessed the murder of their husbands by the LRA in a nightmarish attack on their village, apparently targeting only men of fighting age and strength, killing a number and then disappearing into the jungle without taking anything from the village. The three of them took their children and came to Kassia together, they sleep on the floor in shelter made from grass, leaves and branches.

PURCHASE: 47 tons of food aid for internally displaced people (IDP’s) in Sudan is purchased in the town of Yei and loaded up for the trip to Yambio. Purchasing in country helps the local market, saves excessive transport costs, import duties, taxes and time.

ROAD TRAVEL from Yei to Yambio is  long, difficult and dangerous. It is rainy season, the dirt roads become mud baths with the trucks regularly getting stuck, travel is slow with an average speed of around 25mph. There is an area where the LRA use as a crossing point and ambushes occur after dark that needs to be  travelled through, the driver and passengers are tense and scan the tree line for any threats. Some areas the bridges are down and the team need to drive through rivers.

OFFLOADING food aid into store in Kassia outside Yambio. 

ARROW BOYS of KASSIA– a courageous group of men and boys who have taken up bows & arrows, clubs, machetes, knives, whatever they can use as a weapon to defend their homes and families. This group provided protection, security for the food distribution and guarded the food store throughout the night after receiving threats of an attack from the LRA.

DELIVERY & DISTRIBUTION: 1 880 families received 25kgs of food aid (1 x 50kg bag per 2 families), = 313 000 meals.

Horrifying Conditions continue in Sudan

“I am shocked. I did not think the situation would be this bad,” said CHRF’s team leader about a recent emergency relief trip into Sudan. “I … came across a badly burnt woman whose four children were brutally killed during an attack. I … feel sick in my stomach, I was not prepared for this.”

This mother from the village of Nyadit, Jongelei State, Southern Sudan, had her hut torched while she was inside,  resulting in severe burns to her body. Her four children were killed during this horrific and brutal attack, one son and three daughters, hacked to death by machetes. She will never forget their screams……

Now, she is struggling to deal with the physical pain of the burns and the deep agony of  losing her four young children.

This is just one tragic story, there are so many others that have not been told. During these attacks, some as recent as June 3rd, many hundreds were killed in the forgotten areas of Southern Sudan; there is little if any media coverage. Reports (UN) indicate that more people have died in Southern Sudan in recent months than in Darfur.

Children’s Hunger Relief Fund’s team made an emergency trip by air to Sudan after the attacks on the World Food Program barges stopped the food meant for these desperate people. In 110-degree weather and at great risk to their safety, our team delivered 5.5 tons of food and aid for the internally displaced people (IDPs). This essential delivery provided 40,000 meals.

Reports indicate many hundreds of IDPs, if not thousands, have fled the recent fighting. The situation is tragic and heartbreaking. There are just so many sick, starving, dying or wounded men, women and children. Many are lying on the ground in the open, under trees or in old broken down dirty buildings. Some people are eating leaves and grass.

The suffering is so great that a scuffle broke out when a number of men, desperate to leave, tried to board our plane. The plane was their only way out.

Sudan Update 2009

As NGOs are being expelled from the country, the situation continues to deteriorate in Darfur. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are now left without the help they depended on for survival.

Our emergency relief team was providing food for those in need long before Darfur was in the news and will continue to do so. In spite of the danger, our team is committed to helping these families. But we can’t do it without your help!

Our international relief director reports that the real stories of suffering are not in the centers where the media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are allowed by the Sudanese government. They are out in the mountains and rural areas where tens of thousands have fled for safety and continue to be attacked. Dozens of areas in southern Sudan are filled with these internally displaced people (IDPs) who are camped out under trees, along river banks, without any possessions, shelter or food. These are the people Children’s Hunger Relief Fund (CHRF) is trying to reach.

With just about all the big NGO groups being forced to leave Sudan, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who de-pended on aid to survive are no longer supported. Acting in-dependently, CHRF has been fortunate to still be able to get into areas that des-perately need our help.

Recently, our team distributed food aid in southern Sudan on the border of Congo. Aid was given to both displaced Sudanese and Congo families affected by ongoing attacks.

Our family survival packs contained plastic sheets for shelter, food, pots for cooking, water containers (jerry cans), fishing hooks and line, salt for drying out fish and sometimes mosquito nets. With prices continually rising, these very basic packs cost us between $35 and $45 each.

With every trip to Sudan, our team tries to distribute survival packages to 1000 desperate families. To those people, we have made all the difference and in some cases, it has been the difference between life and death.

It is very difficult and sad when we run out of food packages and see the desperate look on the faces of the women who don’t have food to give their family that night. Our team members often leave with broken hearts, but with your continued support, we intend to return, searching out and serving those who are not being reached with any sort of aid. Please, continue praying for these people, and continue giving so that we can express God’s love and care for those survivors who have suffered so greatly.

Devastation Still Prevails in Sudan

Although the fighting has ceased in southern Sudan, devastation has been left behind. In the rebuilding stages, Sudanese families are struggling to get their lives back together. They may not be running from tree to tree for safety, but many of their homes and livelihood have been destroyed.

Children’s Hunger Relief Fund continues to provide aid to poverty-stricken Sudan with relief shipments. Above, two charter flights were filled with supplies such as food, salt, soap, mosquito nets, Jerry cans for water, cooking pots, plus fishing hooks and lines. Plastic sheeting and building materials were also provided for shelter.

While on the relief mission, members from the relief team of CHRF met with local leaders in Leer and Waat, along with the Vice-President of Sudan.

As the planes landed in Leer and Waat, Sudanese children rushed to help unload the relief aid, eagerly carrying sacks of food that closely outweighed them. Six tons of aid was delivered to Leer and five tons to Waat.

Because of your generous donations, hope was instilled in thousands of people that there can be a better future.

Genocidal Violence Once Again on the Rise

"Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement as is happening right now in Darfur ." - Don Cheadle, star of Hotel Rwanda, speaking for the Save Darur Coalition

Since early 2003, government-supported militias called the Janjaweed have carried out a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against the civilian population of Darfur (Western Sudan). The Janjaweed have been ruthlessly and viciously eliminating entire communities and ways of life: villages are razed, women and girls raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed . The government-sponsored ca mpaign has led to the deaths of almost 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million others from their homes.

Although there were some hopeful signs in 2005 that the violence was abating, the attacks have increased since the beginning of 2006. As an indication of the cruelty of this campaign, food convoys have been specifically targeted. Refugees in the camps and aid workers have also been attacked.

Many refugee families are headed up by women with no form of income, as the men have been killed trying to defend their homes and villages. There are also many orphans who have lost or been separated from their parents during attacks. Large parts of Darfur are desert, and conditions are difficult and dangerous during the best of times. The deadly combination of the Janjaweed and the regional drought have made these the very worst of times.

Please remember the Darfuri people in your prayers.

Field Report 1

Field Report 2