World Vision seeks to bridge humanitarian gaps in Darfur camps

March 27, 2009—World Vision is addressing critical aid gaps in various displacement camps in Darfur after the expulsion of several relief organizations from the war-torn region earlier this month

A joint assessment by the United Nations and the Sudanese government has found gaps in the provision of food, health care, water, shelter and other humanitarian services formerly provided by the expelled organizations.

World Vision is working in concert with other aid organizations and local authorities to fill some of the gaps.

Yesterday, World Vision visited Sakely Camp, five kilometers from Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, to ascertain the extent of need among its residents following the expulsion of an international organization that served them for five years.

World Vision is taking over the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene services at the camp, home to about 6,000 displaced people.

The camp’s residents said they need more water sources as they are currently getting only minimum water supply from a motorized water scheme and a few hand pumps. Also, they urgently need more latrines because many of the existing ones are full.

“We need bamboo sticks and plastic sheeting to construct more latrines for our people,” said Alnur Sheriff Ali, a member of a committee that maintains water sources at the camp. “We also need construction materials for bathrooms,” he said.

He said the camp’s residents also need support to continue such hygiene promotion activities as weekly clean-up campaigns to ward off diseases caused by poor hygiene.

World Vision is primed to expand its water, sanitation and hygiene promotion initiatives to serve all the residents of Sakely. Currently, World Vision distributes monthly food rations in the whole camp and provides water in one section.

“We’ll continue assessing needs and responding to them as per our capacity and availability of funds,” said Mario Rodrigues, operations director for World Vision in Northern Sudan.

Starting in May, World Vision will provide supplemental food to curb malnutrition among 47,000 children under 5 years old in Al Salaam, Kalma and Otash camps. Al Salaam and Kalma were previously served by another agency.

In addition, World Vision and the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) will jointly distribute food rations for May and June to more than 100,000 people in Kass, Kubum and Thur Nyama localities.

World Vision may continue conducting monthly food distributions in the three areas beyond June to fill a gap caused by the exit of another international relief organization.

World Vision also plans to ramp up its primary health care services to reach thousands of needy people in areas formerly served by some of the ousted organisations in Kalma and Otash displacement camps and Duma and Mershing settlements.

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. We serve the world’s poor regardless of a person’s religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org/press