Posts Tagged ‘Sudan’
CRS North Sudan country representative Mark Snyder shows Bishop Ricard temporary shelters built by CRS for families recently displaced by the Darfur conflict. Photo by Bill Schmitt/CRS.
El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan – July 26, 2007
Three years after my first visit, I have returned to Darfur. The conflict is now four years old, and it is far from resolved. But hopefully the tide is turning as a new mood emerges and peace efforts continue.
On my last trip, I traveled with Catholic Relief Services’ president Ken Hackett to the town of Nyala in the state of South Darfur. This time I am in the town of El Geneina in West Darfur, seeing once again the situation on the ground firsthand with staff from CRS.
The emergency response has matured, and it is clear that CRS and other leading agencies are making a difference in people’s lives here. The work is difficult and challenging, especially due to security concerns. Risks are very real, and adjustments have to be made daily, which can be very costly and impact the scale of the response. But the overall situation seems to be stabilizing in terms of reaching people in need.
CRS country representative Mark Snyder shows Bishop Ricard temporary shelters built by CRS for families recently displaced by the Darfur conflict. Photo by Bill Schmitt/CRS.
Today we visited Ardamata camp where thousands of people are living just outside of El Geneina. In the last three weeks, CRS erected 750 new shelters for families recently driven from their homes. Agencies are partnering here to create a planned community that mimics village life. People live in very small structures that are very close to each other, but each families’ area is clearly defined, and schools and water pumps bring the community together.
We also spent time talking with a local wali, some sheiks and an imam, who represent the civic and religious authority in the town. They expressed a great deal of gratitude for CRS’ work and for the engagement of American Catholics and the American people in responding to the crisis. Ongoing needs are still considerable, however, and will require long-term assistance, such as improving access to clean water, building clinics and continuing to expand education services. But I’m seeing a greater level of cooperation and collaboration between the local government and aid agencies, and there is respect here for the work of CRS and that of other agencies. There is also a recognition of their contribution to this difficult situation rather than troubling indifference or animosity.
I’m sensing a different mood in Sudan. I believe that the governors, the Church and the Sudanese people are demonstrating a new sense of confidence in their ability to move toward peace. Sudan is a vast, beautiful country with considerable resources. The Sudanese must resolve the conflict in Darfur in order to move forward in achieving sustainable development.
I hope that American Catholics, who have responded generously to the conflict in Darfur, would continue to provide financial contributions to support ongoing emergency interventions. And I hope that these contributions would be matched by a serious effort on the part of our own State Department and administration in Washington to bring all involved parties together so that these skirmishes and disruption can cease. All Sudanese must be able to live in peace to realize their whole human potential.
Pope Paul VI said in his magnificent encyclical letter Populorum Progressio that development brings about peace, and peace is synonymous with development. It is my hope that this happens across Sudan.
Posted
July 27th, 2007 in
Africa, Darfur, Emergency Response, Sudan by:
jrivera |
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Children welcome a visit from Bishop Ricard, Bishop Cooney and CRS staff at a camp in Darfur. Photo by Bill Schmitt/CRS.
El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan – July 25, 2007
I have come to Africa before, but this trip is decidedly different. I’ve not only been able to see conditions firsthand, but I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Catholic Bishops Conferences in three different countries: Zimbabwe, Burundi and Sudan. In these visits, I’ve witnessed African bishops’ deep commitment to the pursuit of peace and development.
This week I had the incredible experience of meeting with the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference while participating in an open-air Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Khartoum. This joyous celebration of faith, including dancing from all the tribes of South Sudan, demonstrated the bishops’ and people’s hope for a new future between the north and south with the ending of the war. And now I am in Darfur. The mood here is also hopeful, but peace is a long way away.
Today we visited a camp for people who have been driven out of their homes by the ongoing conflict. The standards of living are very poor, but thanks to Catholic Relief Services and other agencies working together, these people at least have a place to stay and receive food supplies on a regular basis. It’s the first time I’ve seen this kind of situation, and I feel deep sorrow for the people living here. People seem very happy to have received some assistance, but they are all looking for better times. Hopefully they will be able to return to their home villages down the line and return to their normal lives — as this is certainly not normal.
A group of children greet the bishops in Darfur at a school where CRS has built urgently needed classrooms. Photo by Bill Schmitt/CRS.
A lot of excellent agencies are cooperating together for the well-being of the people in Darfur, including CRS. I’m hopeful, because I believe an opportunity exists to achieve peace in Darfur and throughout Sudan. Both sides seem to be in a more positive frame of mind. But people continue to suffer — good, hardworking people who deserve the help of the world.
Talking with individual bishops in Sudan was really uplifting. They have some very practical ideas and a desire to make the Church much more than just an idle player and really help the country as a nation. Jesus continuously preached and showed that his lifestyle was to care for those in need. Perhaps this is our time as Americans, and especially as American Catholics, to reach out with what we have to support and help other people. This help can give Sudanese in need food, medication, a house — or at least something to live in — and education. If the rest of the world could pitch in to help as well, the Sudanese could reap many benefits in the years and decades to come.
Perhaps this is also the time in Sudan’s history when everything can turn to the better. It won’t happen today or tomorrow, but I think it can happen.
Bishop Cooney and Bishop Ricard join CRS country representative Mark Snyder in a discussion with teachers at a Darfur school where CRS built needed classrooms. Photo by Bill Schmitt/CRS.
Posted
July 26th, 2007 in
Africa, Darfur, Emergency Response, Sudan by:
jrivera |
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Bishops Ricard and Cooney meet with CRS country representative Mark Snyder and head of programming Hani El Mahdi. Photo by Bill Schmitt/CRS.
Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, and Bishop Patrick R. Cooney of Gaylord, Michigan, are currently in Sudan to meet with the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference as well as Catholic Relief Services staff. Here, Bishop Ricard shares some reflections from his first days in the capital.
Khartoum, Sudan — July 24, 2007
For the first time in almost 20 years, Sudan’s bishops are reunited in Khartoum, having come together to participate in the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference plenary. This joyous occasion marks a new unity, with the separate north and south conferences merged once again into one.
This Sunday on the grounds of St. Matthew’s Cathedral a sense of jubilance and relief prevailed at the open-air Mass and subsequent celebration of music and dance. Around 5,000 people gathered outside the church, expressing an incredible outpouring of affection for the bishops by shaking and kissing their hands. Young dancers and drummers from every major tribe in South Sudan entertained the crowd with music, song, dancing and prayer. The festive mood moved audience members — including nuns, priests and a bishop — to join the dances of their related tribes. This celebration felt like a real turning point, as if people were removing the last restraints of war and feeling free to finally express their faith and joy.
When we met with the bishops the following day, it became clear that the reality in Sudan has changed. Peace has created a whole new set of issues for the conference to address. People returning to the South have rising expectations and are looking to the Church and parishes for schools, medical care and more. Anxiety over delivering all that is needed tempers newfound optimism as people realize that rebuilding won’t happen overnight — even if people are ready to return home now.
Khartoum has also changed. The quiet sleepy town I visited with Ken Hackett in 2004 is now a burgeoning capital with plenty of traffic and construction cranes. There is also a greatly increased presence of southerners, especially young southerners taking advantage of Khartoum’s growing employment opportunities.
Today we will move on to Darfur to visit with some officials and tour CRS projects. Our briefings to date have noted a relative decrease in terms of violence and insecurity and an improvement in the ability to reach more people than before; nonetheless, most access is by helicopter because roads remain dangerous. We should bear in mind that this conflict is far from solved, and 2 million people are still not able to return safely to their homes.
The Sudanese bishops are deeply concerned for their country, both in regard to Darfur and the challenges of facilitating return to the South. They are working closely together to address common problems and are speaking with a unified voice. This represents a new day and is clearly the result of the long-term commitment of CRS and other NGOs who stuck by the Sudanese people, walking with them and accompanying them in their struggle.
Peace and hope for the future now exists between the north and south. May it soon reach Darfur.
Posted
July 25th, 2007 in
Africa, CRS Leadership, Darfur, Sudan by:
jrivera |
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Catholic Relief Services is distributing emergency materials to almost 2,000 families affected by this month’s flash floods in the greater Khartoum area.
During the second week of July, flash floods across central and eastern Sudan claimed at least 30 lives, injured another 100 people and destroyed 25,000 homes, according to the Sudan Ministry of Interior. The flood waters swamped outlying areas of the capital of Khartoum one day after sweeping through the capital’s twin city of Omdurman and Kassala, a town near the Eritrean border in the east.
CRS joined U.N. agencies, donors and other aid agencies in conducting rapid needs-assessment missions after the flooding in three large camps in the greater Khartoum area for people displaced by the north-south war: Mayo, Jebel Awila and Khartoum North. Assessments revealed more than 10,000 families affected, with the heavy rains destroying camp shelters, schools, mosques and health facilities in the area. The enormous amount of water also flooded latrines, polluted wells and destroyed water systems, leaving communities vulnerable to malaria, diarrhea and respiratory infections.
“The assessment showed that 75 percent of the houses were underwater and 90 percent of the latrines were no longer usable,” explains Hani El-Mahdi, CRS Sudan’s head of programming. “Affected people urgently need emergency supplies, which CRS is helping to distribute with our local partners.”
CRS is currently distributing essential supplies to 1,963 affected households in the Jebel Awila camp. Having been active in this camp since 2005, CRS is leveraging close ties with two community-based organizations to distribute plastic sheeting, blankets, sleeping mats, jerry cans, buckets and soap — all provided by U.N. Joint Logistics Center. CRS and its partners plan to distribute 4,000 mosquito nets provided by UNICEF to avert risk of malaria infection.
Caritas Austria provided CRS with a grant of 20,000 Euros (U.S. $27,557) for emergency response to the floods. In addition to supporting materials distribution, these funds will be used to rehabilitate public latrines in the camp and erect tents to serve as temporary classrooms in three schools in Jebel Awlia.
CRS will continue to coordinate with other aid agencies to monitor and address the needs of affected people.
Posted
July 16th, 2007 in
Africa, Emergency Response, Sudan by:
jrivera |
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A glistening steel water tank sits atop its metal throne. The structure is an arresting sight — a tall anomaly in a town of grass huts, mud-brick homes and one-story cement buildings. Thick pipes run down the length of the tower until they disappear into the dusty ground. I feel a strong temptation to salute the tank in admiration.
After the Indian Ocean tsunami, I worked in Sri Lanka helping to coordinate relief activities in the southern district of Galle. Getting enough water to temporary camps there was a never-ending headache, and here above me — in Darfur of all places — stands a tank filled with what I consider to be liquid gold.
CRS in partnership with UNICEF and the government’s water and sanitation department have set up this impressive temporary water system in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state. A generator, pump and considerable amount of fuel drive fresh water from an area borehole up into the CRS storage tank, which was funded by the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). At designated hours each day, the tank releases chlorinated water, which flows out to multiple taps in two camps for displaced Darfuris and in a small village nearby. Families who have had to flee their homes to escape violence now have the small luxury of turning on a tap and stepping back as they watch their water cans fill.
I enter the closest camp of Medina Hujaj with three of CRS’ West Darfur staff members: Derek Kyambadde, water-sanitation and education program manager; Rashida Ahmed, education team leader; and Ibrahim Azrag, water-sanitation officer. We stop in front of a set of six taps and wait for the area sheikh to arrive. He walks up with an outstretched hand, and everyone launches into the traditional string of Sudanese welcomes — “Peace be with you. Blessings be with you. How are you doing? We are OK. How are you? Good. Good. Thank God for that. All is good.” I join in with the few Arabic phrases I’m still mastering, hoping no one notices the creative liberty I take in the hum of hellos.
The sheikh kindly grants us permission to tour the camp and speak with its residents. We approach a group of women gathered near the water lines, and I ask one who is filling her plastic can if she’d be willing to share a bit of her story with me.
“When we came here, there was no water in the camp. We had to go to a small river bed more than two kilometers away,” says Zahara Adam, a 25-year-old mother who arrived three years ago. “Now it’s good to have the tap here. It saves time for making food.” She adds that the water lets her wash her family’s clothes more easily and helps keep her baby clean.
Camp resident Zahara Adam appreciates how much easier life is after CRS installed water taps in the Darfur camp she has called home for the past three years. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.
Right next to the taps are another group of women sitting around the drying foundations of round mud stoves. As if on cue (and totally unplanned), another CRS vehicle pulls up with two health and nutrition staff members. A second hum of greetings ensues, and we learn that they started teaching these women yesterday how to construct the mud stoves, with plans to finish this morning.
One of the stove makers is Aziza Juma. She tells me that she is 23 years old and is the mother of three children. She quietly adds that only one is still living. I reach for her hand in a totally inadequate gesture of condolence and ask no further questions. After a silent pause, we continue talking.
She explains that she is building an improved mud stove with CRS because it’s dangerous to use an open cooking fire inside her shelter. The new stove will also use less firewood. This is good, because she doesn’t feel safe going out to collect wood, and buying it is expensive.
As we leave to see CRS’ other water-sanitation improvements in the camp — including blocks of toilets, hand-washing stands, shower stalls and garbage pits — we thank the women in another singsong of goodbyes and well wishes. “Ma’salama, ma’salama.” We leave you with peace.
Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ Regional Information Officer for East Africa, is currently visiting projects in Sudan to share stories about the people CRS is assisting. This dispatch was written on June 18.
A camp resident, Aziza Juma, is happy to be building a more energy-efficient mud stove with CRS’ help. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.
Posted
June 22nd, 2007 in
Africa, Darfur, Emergency Response, Sudan by:
jrivera |
4 Comments »
Zeinab interviews a mother about her family’s eating habits to analyze health and nutrition issues in northern Darfur communities. Photo by Hikma Alnour/CRS
It’s a little unsettling to fly west across Sudan’s deserts to Darfur. The four-year-old conflict — which according to UN estimates has killed about 200,000 people and displaced 2 million from their homes — continues to rage. But in a number of places, an uneasy security holds, enabling aid agencies like Catholic Relief Services to provide emergency assistance.
The local Sudanese staff hired to deliver the aid on the ground are vital to these relief efforts. CRS currently has about 120 staff members in our West Darfur field office in El Geneina. When security allows, another dozen work out of three sub-offices in the 85-mile Northern Corridor stretch running up along the Chadian border. These dedicated professionals provide a wide range of relief services, including monthly food distributions to 150,000 people affected by the conflict, temporary shelter construction, health and nutrition training, education programs, agricultural recovery, and water and sanitation projects.
When I arrive at CRS’ modest sub-office and living compound in Kulbus, I’m surprised to meet two female staff members who are providing health and nutrition services. Male staff sure, but what are young Muslim women doing working in Darfur hot spots far away from their families?
“It’s better for women to do health and nutrition work because women are the ones who cook and provide primary care for their children,” explains 29-year-old Zeinab Mohamed, CRS’ West Darfur nutrition team leader who previously worked for six years with Sudan’s Ministry of Health.
Hikma shows Haraza villagers how to make mud stoves that cook food twice as fast using half the firewood as open-air fires. Photo by Zeinab Mohamed/CRS
Zeinab works alongside 24-year-old Hikma Alnour, a CRS nutrition assistant. Teaming with two other female staff members in El Geneina, they coordinate health and nutrition activities in six El Geneina camps for displaced families and in the towns and villages surrounding CRS’ northern sub-offices. When they head north by helicopter, they travel in pairs and typically visit one or two sub-offices over a two-week period, providing as many services in as many villages as time and security allow.
“I want to support communities affected by the conflict and educate them on how to make their lives easier,” Zeinab adds. She also appreciates the money she can earn to educate her own children. With her seven-year-old son in primary school and five-year-old son in kindergarten, Zeinab needs to pay their teachers and for transportation each month.
Running through the list of CRS health and nutrition activities takes some time. These four women weigh children under five in the communities served, provide two weeks of daily follow-up to mothers of underweight children, hold nutrition education workshops, offer demonstrations of how to prepare more nutritional local dishes, teach women how to build simple energy-efficient mud stoves and train traditional birth attendants in prenatal and pediatric nutrition, immunization guidelines, breastfeeding best practices and more.
Today we take a four-wheel-drive truck across sandy tracks just outside of Kulbus to visit the village of Haraza, where CRS has worked for the past three years. A new mother joins us as we’re chatting with her relatives, and Hikma’s eyes light up as she reaches out for the baby. The one-month-old girl is doing well even though the family has its challenges. Villagers must collect all needed water by crossing the mile and a half of sand to Kulbus — a distance considered quite short in this region, especially when covered by donkey. Some women must also travel considerable distances to reach their farming plots of arable land.
I ask Hikma if she ever gets discouraged in her work.
“I support people from Kulbus and Sirba, so it’s good,” she says, shaking her head no. “Mothers don’t know the benefits of early initiation and exclusivity of breastfeeding. I teach them, and children benefit.”
I benefit too by having these women replace my preconceived notions with a new understanding of courageous, committed health workers who are more than capable of taking on the challenges of helping people in Darfur.
Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ Regional Information Officer for East Africa, is currently visiting projects in Sudan to share stories about the people CRS is assisting. This dispatch was written on June 16.
Posted
June 21st, 2007 in
Africa, Darfur, Emergency Response, Sudan by:
jrivera |
2 Comments »
A “haboob” is swirling outside. Gusts of wind fling grains of sand in every direction — into my burning eyes and across my laptop screen and keyboard. Fortunately this latest haboob has held off until dusk to begin its sporadic blowing.
I arrive by UN helicopter in Kulbus, a dusty northern community in West Darfur — a state in Sudan where CRS provides emergency assistance to 150,000 Darfuris. My timing couldn’t be better; A CRS-sponsored seed fair kicked off at 8 a.m. in the village market.
When we arrive, a rainbow of colors greets us on our right where hundreds of women sit in a circle waiting for their turn to register for seed vouchers. To our left, dozens of small traders are setting up their bags and pouring out piles of seeds to attract the farmers. Children amble through the aisles, watching the action and swatting away opportunistic donkeys trying to sneak a nibble.
CRS seed fairs boost local economies, benefiting both local farmers and traders. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.
Over the next 10 hours, a dozen hardworking CRS staff serve around 1,250 farming households and 50 traders. Collaborating with village elders, CRS selected these eligible families based on need, giving priority to vulnerable and female-headed households. A few weeks earlier, a similar tool fair let the families purchase needed tools, including hoes, spades and rakes.
“Each farming household receives about $25 worth of seed and tool voucher tickets,” explains Belihu Negesse, CRS’ head of office and food security manager for West Darfur. “The registered traders accept the CRS vouchers and then turn them in for cash at our office in El Geneina.” With support from the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), CRS teams will hold seed and tool fairs for 10,000 farm households in the Northern Corridor of West Darfur this planting season.
“I came to the market to buy sesame, ground nut, and millet seeds,” says Marium Ismail Mohamedin, a shy local farmer who leans into her sister Medina as she rearranges her bright orange scarf. “I will plant the seeds and use the food to help pay for my children’s schooling.”
A pleased trader waits for her next customer. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.
The current stability in Kulbus allows households to farm once again, but many need some help getting started. CRS seed fairs enable farming households to purchase around 44 pounds of seeds, which is about half the seeds required to sow an average family plot of five acres. Farmers rely on their own resources and support from relatives to plant the remainder of their fields.
“During conflict, markets and trade are also affected,” adds Mohamed Ibrahim, a CRS agriculture recovery assistant. “Some traders — and even farmers with small excesses — can’t sell their seeds because of insecurity and the resulting difficulty of movement.” CRS’ seed and tool fairs support entrepreneurs in the local market, boosting the area’s economy while providing farmers with a diverse choice of seeds.
One female trader, Aum El Zain Mohammed, wishes that prices were higher, but she likes the simplicity of the voucher system.
“I will use part of the money to support my children who are already in school. And I’ll use part of the money to hire other people to help me cultivate, because this is something I can’t manage to do all by myself,” Aum El Zain says, burying her ankle into a pile of sesame seeds. The bottom half of her right leg is gouged by bullet wounds, and her son’s right leg is similarly scarred. She shares that many of her family members died in earlier area attacks.
But Aum El Zain isn’t letting her past troubles keep her down. “I also plan to buy some sheep to sell and raise,” she adds, noting that her husband sells livestock to help support the farm. “Now life is very good. Not like before.”
And for now, the dust has stopped blowing outside my door.
Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ Regional Information Officer for East Africa, is currently visiting projects in Sudan to share stories about the people CRS is assisting. This dispatch was written on June 14.
Posted
June 18th, 2007 in
Africa, Darfur, Emergency Response, Sudan by:
jrivera |
4 Comments »
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