SUDAN RELIEF EFFORTS


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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.

Hungry families prepare a filling meal with some of the food received from our packages.

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,

Malnutrition is a constant struggle for Sudanese children who have been displaced without any possessions, food or 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.

For $45, we can provide a survival kit to meet the above needs for a refugee family in Darfur. However, reaching the isolated areas where the needs are most desperate is difficult and expensive: air charter rates run $40,000-50,000 per 25 tons. Please consider adding something to your gift to help with these costs.