IoM Commission provides vital help to Darfur Refugees

Thousands of vulnerable Sudanese refugees from Darfur, including orphans and children separated from their parents, have been helped by a substantial grant from the Isle of Man Overseas Aid Commission.

The emergency support has enabled CORD to directly assist youngsters who lost their families in the conflict or in their flight to seek sanctuary in neighbouring Chad. Working in Gaga and Farchana camps- where well over half the population are under the age of 18 – CORD has found foster families for the children, who continue to experience trauma because of the atrocities they witnessed back in their homeland.

A programme of continuing support is underway for them and for families where the eldest child has taken on the role of parent, while disabled children have been given wheelchairs so they can become more independent.

The package of assistance also included help for the elderly and chronically ill. Some two thousand people have received basic essentials including blankets, cooking kits, jerry cans and mats, while others saw World Food Programme food rations delivered to their tent or shelter from the distribution centres. Meanwhile 640 newly born babies have been officially registered, provided with birth certificates and their mothers given baby kits of clothing, soap and towels. Similarly bereaved families were provided with shroud fabric to bury their dead with dignity.

The refugee camp communities are being encouraged to actively participate in this care and assistance of their most vulnerable, an ongoing programme of empowerment that the Commission funding has also made possible.

Monthly meetings of the 50 strong child welfare committees have meant that child protection issues in both camps are thoroughly discussed and ideas shared; a practice which will continue as an intrinsic part of CORD’s expanding Schools programme via the parent teachers’ associations and strategy groups. The problem of retaining girls in the classroom is a particular concern being addressed. Meanwhile a new vocational training centre being built in Gaga Camp will provide literacy, training and start up materials for fledgling small businesses. Women and the disabled are being specifically helped to find ways of supporting themselves.

’We are working alongside some of the world’s most marginalised people – many of them young children - and who continue to endure great hardship and trauma as a result of the Darfur crisis,’ said CORD Chief Executive Brian Wakley .’ This aid from the people of the Isle of Man has provided a humanitarian lifeline for those worst hit by the ongoing tragedy,’ he added.

CORD has been in Chad since the conflict first erupted in 2004, longer than any other UK non governmental agency. Our programme operates in four camps near the eastern border with a total population of 85,000 refugees who, in the absence of any peace accord, can see no hope of returning home in the foreseeable future.