Food Security Sudan Project #13955

Children face starvation in Darfur now - urgent

by Kids for Kids

Children face starvation in Darfur now - urgent

Project Report | Aug 8, 2017
Malnutrition and a Doubling Opportunity

By Caroline Donald | Administrator/Fundraiser

Um Kaltoum - case study

As we reported in May, the hungry months have hit families hard in Darfur. Children are going without any source of protein for months. Villagers are hoping and praying that drought will not cause the crops to fail and they will harvest enough for the next 12 months. In Darfur people are subsistence farmers. They eat what they grow. They have no other income to rely on.

We visited the village of Um Judoul last month where we have begun working this year. Meeting some of the newest beneficiaries of the goat loans is an incredibly memorable experience and brings home the need and the difference your donations make to families in Darfur.

One beneficiary is Um-Kaltoum. Aged 45 and married with seven children (two are under five) Um-Kaltoum does not yet have any goats and but has one female donkey. Her husband is a farmer in the rainy season and in the dry season tries to find work as a labourer in El Fasher and neighbouring villages. Um-Kaltoum said "I was only able to harvest one and a half sacks of millet. Can you imagine trying to make such a little amount stretch to last the whole year? It is not possible. There are 8 of us and I try to help my father too who is on his own. We worked so hard but there were locusts first, then drought. I didn't know what to do." Um-Kaltoum's family are in desperate need of help. The signs of malnutrition can be clearly seen. Um-Kaltoum’s son’s hair looks a bleached yellow – the first sign they are not getting the nutrition they need. They have not had protein in any form for months. We know it means their bones and teeth and even their brains are suffering too.

Did you know that if a child is suffering from malnutrition, they are even more susceptible to illnesses, and are less able to fight off infection? These children are at real risk of dying if they don’t get help quickly. We are doing so in a way that we know works, because we have seen its success in other villages. Key project is our Goat Loan - lending 6 goats to a family for two years. Through our goat loans, families have access to a source of protein with the goat’s milk. Just one cup a day will turn this boy’s hair back to beautiful black.

Through your support, we are able to loan Um-Kaltoum six goats and provide emergency food supplies plus seed for her to plant. With these she can feed her children and grow her flock of goats, before passing on the loan to another family in her village, and so the cycle continues.

Um-Kaltoum will have the support of her Village Development Committee and Animal Loan Committee whom we train. They will support her to take care of her donkey and goats. Her sons can train as shepherds to care day to day for the animals and our trained Paravets will help to protect and treat the goats to prevent diseases. A first aider will be trained for healthcare in the village too. With this holistic care, we can transform Um-Kaltoum's and her children’s lives. Be proud that this is all thanks to your donation and support. We will let you know how Um-Kaltoum gets on.

If you think you would like to help more, please consider making your donation a regular donation for the next two years so that we can make sure Um-Kaltoum and her children are supported through this journey. We will keep in touch with her and other beneficiaries regularly to find out how they are getting on.

Thank you so very much!

Young Shepherd

Children's hair slowly turning back to black

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May 15, 2017
We are in the middle of the Hungry Season

By Mary Jane Kupsky | US Volunteer, Kids for Kids

Little arrival receives help

In the villages of Darfur, we are in the middle of the hungry season, the time when water has dried up, the crops and grass has long since ceased growing and the land has reverted to sand. If you have not saved enough food for you and your animals, you will starve. Last year was a year of severe drought and families are struggling to find enough to eat yet now refugees, fleeing the famine in South Sudan are arriving in villages. At the same time families who took refuge in the vash internationally displaced people's camps are desperately looking for help to settle in villages and give their children a home at last. Families facing desperate need are coming to the Kids for Kids' villages because they know they are stronger. The UN said recently that there were no malnourished children in our villages. By tradition, anyone in need will not be turned away. Eighty-two families have recently arrived into one of our villages, Abu Degeise. Many are asking for help from other villages too. Please can you help us help them to feed their own familiesl, and now these starving families too?

With your help, we are doing what we can do. Supplemental feed for goats and donkeys will help goat's milk keep coming and donkeys to stay strong enough to help gather water and be ready for the planting season ahead.

We can send seed for that next planting so that people in the villages will not hold back their own stores from last year and can make aseeda, seed-based food that they rely on to hold them through the hungry times. Those who have no seed are forced to scavange for things like mukheit which is bitter but can stave off starvation.

Sometimes the world can feel overwhelming and we all wonder what we can possibly do. My wish is that you know your partnership with Kids for Kids means even in the hungry season, there is hope. Fodder for the goats and seed for next season empowers the poorest of the poor to lift themselves up to a sustainable better life.

For now, we need to get that seed and goat fodder on the way to more villages. A kind gift from you today means not just getting through the hungry season, but crops growing when the rains come, and goats that have survived will not just sustain life, they will provide an income for mothers and empower people to build a future.

Thank you for what you have done in the past. And thank you for the the future you help build with every donation to Kids for Kids. The world may get overwhelming, but you and Kids for Kids are creating real change for the very poorest.

You can be a hero again today with the click of a button.

Links:

More info on Kids for Kids work in Darfur

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Feb 15, 2017
Can you imagine waking hungry - every day?

By Patricia Parker MBE | Founder

Mothers struggle as their husbands search for food

It is hard to imagine being hungry every day of your life, but this is what it is like to be a child in Darfur. The summer months are known as the 'hungry months'. This is when all surface water has dried up, men, women, children and animals are walking miles for every drop of water, and nothing is growing. If you have not collected enough grass earlier in the year, your animals starve too.

This is when you value your little goats most. Their milk is the only source of protein, mineral and vitamins for your children. Kids for Kids provides what has been called by the Governor of North Darfur "The best microfinance scheme ever" because we lend six goats to the poorest families in each of the villages we adopt so that the children have milk immediately. Their mothers can make yoghourt and as the little flock grows they have an income - often for the first time in their lives. After two years they pass 6 goats to another family in need, and so on, every two years.

Last year, thanks to you, we provided goats for four communities in North Darfur. This year we are hoping to be able to provide all our integrated projects to five villages. Can you help please? We also give fodder and seeds to villages where there has been the worst drought. Tragically, in some villages flash floods washed away people's valuable seeds. Without your help, they would face a bleak year. Kids for Kids keeps a fund to help families facing disaster. Each year fathers and the eldest sons leave home because they are another mouth to feed "If I stayed I would be eating what little there is instead of my poor children having it" said Abdullah who lives in one of the worst hit villages. "Thanks to Kids for Kids I can now stay at home in the hungry months and help look after my children until the rains come and we can work the fields again."

Kids for Kids' projects are enabling families to stay together instead of becoming refugees across the world, in search of a way to earn money to send home so their families will not starve. Our sustainable projects are helping over 374,000 people in 82 villages, but there are over 900 villages in Darfur. With your help, little by little, one family at a time, we are making a real difference. Thank you.

At home in Darfur

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