World Vision’s work in Darfur

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Media contacts

Laura Blank
617.945.7548 (o)
646.245.2496 (c)

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updated July 2010

In the Darfur region of Sudan, a six-year conflict between rebel groups and the government has driven more than 2.7 million people into temporary camps — and more than 300,000 have been killed. World Vision has provided humanitarian assistance to war-affected children and adults in Darfur since June 2004. Our current programs are located in Southern Darfur.

Food aid

Provision of food aid remains World Vision’s largest intervention. We are currently providing monthly food rations to approximately 400,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in 13 IDP camps and conflict-affected areas. World Vision is the WFP’s largest Cooperating Partner in South Darfur, employing 350 Sudanese national staff and about 17 expatriate staff from more than 10 countries.

While the conflict in Darfur has continued since 2004, World Vision and other humanitarian agencies continue to register new IDPs arriving at the camps in need of urgent assistance. For example, since December 2007, more than 18,000 newly displaced people arriving in Alsalam camp, South Darfur.

Child-focused assistance

Recognizing the heightened vulnerability of children and mothers, World Vision is providing targeted health, nutrition, education, and community interventions:

• More than 150,000 patients — many of them children and pregnant women — have been treated in six primary health care clinics in five camps.
• Some 100,000 people have benefited from access to clean water and better sanitation through the distribution and construction of hand pumps, pipeline distribution networks, boreholes, water treatment, latrines, bathing cabins, and waste water drainage systems.
• Eight supplemental feeding centers have been set up in the camps around Nyala town (Otash, Sereif, Dereig, and Mosey) and areas to the north (Duma, Mershing, Khor Abashe, and Manawashi).
• World Vision is supporting 24 temporary schools for 9,000 children; 22 Child-Friendly Spaces where 8,000 displaced children regularly visit for supervised psycho-social, sports, and learning activities; and seven Women’s Empowerment Centers where some 4,000 women are receiving hygiene and AIDS education, vocation skills training, and trauma support.

Current challenges

Security remains a serious challenge for NGOs working in Darfur. World Vision continues to highlight the urgent need for a long-term security solution acceptable to all parties that will allow NGOs on the ground to access the most vulnerable populations.

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.