The West Darfur region of Sudan is now home to a vast number of refugees fleeing the genocide of war-torn Sudan. Food for the Hungry is part of a massive relief effort helping those families who are displaced by the war.
Food for the Hungry has partnered with six other North American-based humanitarian groups to form the Darfur Relief Collaboration. The group has recently received a grant from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for nearly half-a-million dollars to work in three remote villages in West Darfur that are straining to host thousands of internally displaced families.
Food for the Hungry President, Ben Homan and Special Assistant Peter Howard recently traveled to Sudan along with a collaborative team, where they surveyed and evaluated the current relief operations and assessed the need for additional programs. Homan spoke from Sudan, saying, "The displacement of people here in West Darfur in Sudan is at a crisis proportion. And Food for the Hungry is here to offer hope and help to the people who have lost their homes and their livelihoods, who have been victims of incredible human rights violations in this land."
Food for the Hungry is supporting long-term programs for the rehabilitation of the people of Sudan, including providing medical care, teaching health education, digging wells, building latrines, developing programs for improving the health of livestock, and rebuilding agriculture programs and crops.
But, Homan says it won't be an easy task or a quick-fix to the effects of the decades of war, "It's a long time before the people of Sudan and West Darfur feel the security to get back into their fields and their villages, and so that remains another crucial thing as we look to the future."
In Sudan's war-torn recent history, more than 2-million people have died, 500-thousand people are refugees, and almost the entire southern population have been displaced. The war has led to impoverished living and devastating famines.
Food for the Hungry and the other groups in the Darfur Relief Collaboration hope to help turn the tide of the devastation, and meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
