Sudanese Civic Groups Scramble to Help the Homeless
5 January 2005
Oxfam’s local partners are working to meet the needs of tens of thousands of homeless people living in the temporary camps and crowded towns of Darfur.
Backbone and energy: That's what it takes to make a difference in Darfur, and for nearly 15 years, that's what the Kebkabiya Smallholders Charitable Society (KSCS) did in this poor and remote region of western Sudan. It worked to improve the lives of villagers through development and livelihood projects.
But two years of violence has changed all that.
Today, KSCS is one of Oxfam's local partners that now finds itself responding to a humanitarian crisis of enormous magnitude. Instead of looking to the future, it is helping to patch together a present torn to shreds by the conflict that has wracked this region since early 2003.
KSCS is not alone. Wherever they can, local organizations are marshalling their limited resources to help ease the suffering of some of the 1.7 million people who have been forced from their homes as armed groups have swept across the region burning villages, looting livestock, and killing wantonly.
Near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, the Umjumma Society has set up a women's training program at Abu Shouk, a camp for 75,000 homeless people. There, with the help of six pedal-powered sewing machines, the women are learning how to sew garments and accessories they can then sell. The income will help support them and their families.
When the people at Abu Shouk are finally able to return to their homes, the El Fasher branch of the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society would like to plant trees on the hot sandy plain on which they're camped. In the scramble to find firewood for cooking, camp residents are felling trees, thereby contributing to the slow but steady growth of the desert, said Mohamed Salih, a local member of the society.
"It's bad, very bad," he sighed. That could be a lament applied to all of Darfur, where so many people need so much help.
In Kebkabiya, a once-small town in North Darfur that had a population of 18,000, KSCS has joined forces with Oxfam to help prevent the spread of waterborne diseases among a population that has now exploded to 78,000 people. Sixty thousand of them have swarmed into town seeking refuge from the violence beyond its borders. With this influx has come a huge need for clean water and adequate sanitation. KSCS has stepped up to the challenge.
Oxfam has provided materials for the construction of latrines around town and KSCS works with the community to get them built. The organization has also formed numerous health committees to educate people about the importance of good hygiene in preventing the spread of disease.
"KSCS has been here a long time and they know the context of the area," said Esther Kabahuma, one of Oxfam's public health promoters in Kebkabiya. "The capacity of the team is really good." The society has 19 members now working with Oxfam.
"I'm very impressed with them as an organization," said Mat Cousins, Oxfam's former program coordinator for North Darfur. "They are active players."
But, like other local civic organizations, KSCS could use more support, added Cousins. In the front yard of its compound, an old white truck sits propped in the dust, its wheels long gone—a metaphor for all that needs fixing in Darfur.
Dr. Hawa Sulieman Hussein, a member of the Umjumma Society, knows all about the depth of need in Darfur. The organization, which started 12 years ago, works with women and children in rural areas. Its goal is to help women earn money and improve their lives by training them in food technology, such as how to dry foods for sale, and how to make marketable handicrafts.
While it owns a small building in El Fasher that it bought with the help of Oxfam-Québec, the Umjumma Society is now putting most of its energy into working with women at Abu Shouk, where it has set up a temporary training facility. More than 100 women have already benefited from its programs. The society also runs a kindergarten at the camp, said Sulieman Hussein.
"It's better now to assist the IDPs [internally displaced people] in the camp," she said. "Now they know how to sew."
But carrying out the training programs has been a challenge financially.
"It's very hard, in this situation especially," said Sulieman Hussein. "We are all affected by this war. We have no other resources [for the society] except our salaries." Aid groups are now directing their support to the humanitarian crisis rather than funding development projects, she added.
A budget crunch is also hampering the conservation society of which Mohamed Salih is a member.
"It's a volunteer society. We don't have any money left," he said. And yet so much needs to be done. Among the projects his group tackled recently was a garbage collection program in El Fasher. People were accustomed to digging holes in the streets where they would toss their trash—and where roaming goats would dine on inedible things and die, said Salih.
To help get its messages out to the public, the society participates in a local radio program. It encourages people not to throw their garbage in the streets and not to cut trees.
"There are so many don'ts," said Salih. "It's very difficult to get people to change their habits."
But if the society had access to better technology—a video camera, computers and some audiovisual equipment—it might be able to reach more people with its conservation messages, said Salih.
Technology, job training, water, sanitation—the list of needs is long in Darfur. Satisfying them will not be easy and war has only made the job harder for local civic groups.
