Emergency Relief: Darfur, Sudan

Crisis in Darfur, Sudan

SOS Emergency Relief Programme 2005-present

Civil war in the Darfur region of Sudan is seen as one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history. It is estimated that more than two million people have fled their homes and more than 200,000 have been killed. The ongoing civil war, which started in 1955, has had a devastating effect on the living conditions of the children, and many of the population live in constant fear and deprivation.

Currently, SOS Children runs two Family Centres in Darfur in the Abu Shok Refugee Camp, which support families displaced by the ongoing conflict in this region. Thousands of families in the Abu Shok Refugee Camp, in Al-Fashir, Darfur, have been receiving assistance from these centres since early 2005 through: 

·    Psychological and psychiatric treatment for the children and families traumatized by the events they witnessed back home
·    A family retracing programme (and for those children who lost their entire families in the war, they are offered a permanent home in our Children’s Villages in Khartoum or in Malakal)
·    15 protected huts for vulnerable women and abandoned children where they can spend the day in a safe area. The women are also offered counselling and, to give them a more secure future, we have set up training courses for them in our ‘handicrafts’ tent. They learn how to make blankets and baskets and are taught how to sell them to make money for their families. Men are also offered trauma therapy sessions by our trained psychologists.

SOS Children have supported over 3,000 children and 800 adults in Abu-Shouk since 2005. SOS Children is also offering psycho-social support to hundreds of women and children in the Oure Cassoni Refugee camp in Chad, where some 200,000 Sudanese refugees have sought safety.

SOS Children has been active in Sudan since 1978 and continues to support refugees, child soldiers and families affected by the conflict. At present there are two SOS Children's Villages in Sudan, one SOS Nursery, one SOS Secondary School and one SOS Vocational Training Centre.