Sudan
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› Nearly 80,000 displaced people received emergency supplies |
Background
UMCOR began working in Sudan in February 2005 after assessment teams determined that UMCOR's experience could add to the humanitarian effort to alleviate suffering in South Darfur. Initial programs focused on providing essential non-food items to displaced people living in camps. UMCOR Sudan has since expanded its programs to include education, agriculture, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) projects. A second office was opened in South Sudan, a region with low levels of infrastructure and high levels of need. Programs in South Sudan focus on reintegration of the population by providing water and sanitation programs and school reconstruction after years of war.
AGRICULTURE
The program seeks to provide an effective strategy to regain livelihood security for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities (HCs). The South Darfur agriculture program focuses on assisting IDPs and HCs to regain livelihood security by providing agricultural inputs such as seeds and tools, establishing farmers’ committees, and providing training. The program objectives are to provide additional sources of food and cash income and to restore the livelihoods from agriculture. The program currently targets a total of 10,700 households. It is providing general food distribution (GFD) to over 100,000 IDP beneficiaries each month in South Darfur to supplement crop production, as well.
EDUCATION AND CHILD PROTECTION
UMCOR Sudan’s Education and Child Projection program centers on teacher training, school construction and reconstruction, establishing Parent Teachr Associations and providing essential school supplies for students. For example, UMCOR partners with UNICEF to distribute girls' uniforms and school materials for 11,400 students in Darfur. UMCOR has also constructed new classroom blocks and rehabilitated permanent classrooms in addition to building gender-specific latrines at the schools. School kits from UMCOR Sager Brown, the UMCOR’s Relief Supply Center, are also distributed to support students in Darfur and South Sudan. Through a WFP school feeding program in Darfur, UMCOR is targeting 4,598 pupils in 12 primary schools in Al Daein and Adilla localities with food.
Since March 2006, UMCOR Sudan has implemented the Child Protection and Development program. It brings much-needed services to internally displaced women and children in the Al Deain area. A youth center was rehabilitated by using local material and women's training center was constructed in Khor Omer. Young boys also receive training in shoe making, carpentry, building and electricity at the center. In another community, UMCOR will construct a shelter focused on providing activities for young girls.
UMCOR Sudan is also supporting 460 preschool children by constructing permanent classrooms where they can learn in a safe environment. UMCOR provided teachers and learning materials to preschool children to create an enabling environment for supporting and extending their development and learning.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND INTERVENTION
UMCOR Sudan Emergency Response and Interventions are focused on distributing non-food items, providing small-scale livelihoods activities, water and camp coordination. To date, UMCOR has supported more than 80,000 individuals in IDP camps. Through UMCOR's flood response project in Khartoum, classrooms in ten target schools were rehabilitated and non-food items such as blankets, sleeping mats, and plastic jerry cans for water were distributed.
PEACE BUILDING
UMCOR’s peace building project in Sudan focuses on workshops and training in peaceful coexistence, conflict resolution, as well as organizing peace building activities through songs, dramas and dances. The project targets youth, women, teachers and community leaders in IDP camps in South Darfur. Peace building pamphlets are circulated within the communities to disseminate messages about the importance of peace and how it can be achieved.
RECONSTRUCTION
Through a funds from Ginghamsburc United Methodist Church and USAID/OFDA, UMCOR is helping 90,000 people to have better access to water and sanitation. UMCOR Sudan is working with communities to reestablish and expand existing water systems. The program drills boreholes, rehabilitates water points, and trains communities how to manage and repair their water supplies. Reconstruction activities also focus on improving sanitation within the communities by building latrines for the increased population of people seeking safety in the camps and the surrounding host communities. To ensure this work will continue, UMCOR Sudan is training community caretakers and committees to maintain the improved water and sanitation systems as well as provide hygiene promotion messages.
The program also provides shelter for IDPs. UMCOR’s shelter construction project assists beneficiaries in IDP camps to build temporary housing. Materials to build shelters and latrines are distributed and beneficiaries are trained through shelter extensionists and community leaders to enhance sustainable shelter management and to increase beneficiary participation in shelter construction activities. To date, over 16,000 people have received shelter kits through the project.
PARTNERS IN OUR WORK
UMCOR Sudan works with a variety of partners to make our work possible. In addition to the private funds we receive through the United Methodist Church we also receive support from the following:
US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance
Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, Tipp City, OH
UNICEF
WFP
FAO
Cordaid
