News Brief

Christian aid agencies unite for Sudan

-21/7/04

The UKís best known international aid charities, including Christian agencies World Vision, Tearfund and Christian Aid, are have launched a joint national appeal for public help as the crisis in Sudan deepens.

BBC Breakfast presenter Natasha Kaplinskyís and actress Joanna Lumleyís powerful and personal appeals will be shown on all the TV stations on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Sudan Emergency Appeal.

Money raised by this, the DECís 50th appeal, is desperately needed to provide emergency aid to thousands of men, women and children forced to flee their homes because of the violence in Darfur, Sudan. Some have managed to cross the border into neighbouring Chad. Many more have headed for makeshift camps inside Sudan.

DEC spokesperson, Sophie Battas, who has just returned from four months working in Darfur said things are going from bad to worse.

ìI have worked in many emergency situations over the past few years ñ Zimbabwe, Malawi, Colombia, Iraq, DRC, Angola ñ and this is definitely the largest-scale humanitarian crisis I have seen,î she said. ìThe scale of peopleís suffering is immense and only getting worse. People have lost family members, been driven from their homes and lost everything they own. More Sudanese continue to leave their villages daily in search of safety within Darfur or across the border in Chad.

ìIn Kalma camp in South Darfur last week, I spoke with a woman who had arrived three months ago with her five children. The only clothes she had were the ones she was wearing. Each day, she had to line up for five hours in sweltering heat to fill her bucket with water. She did not have enough food, and her only shelter was a piece of plastic sheeting, under which the whole family slept.

ìIn this camp 57,000 have been living with just 200 latrines in the entire camp, roughly one for every 285 people. The normal standard for a disaster response is one latrine per twenty people.

Sophie added: ìThe scale of the crisis is overwhelming, and although aid agencies are working very hard to provide basic things like food, water, shelter, and sanitation, two million people in the region need food aid.î

The money raised through the DEC appeal will help provide those fleeing the violence in Sudan and eastern Chad with shelter, clean water and sanitation. It will also provide emergency food aid and basic items such as water buckets, blankets and soap.

Brendan Gormley, the DECís Chief Executive said: ìThe member agencies are already there and working tirelessly. Now they need your help to scale up their work and reach the ever-increasing number of people in desperate need.î