Darfur Crisis: Re-Commit to Families

Amid reports of a worsening situation in Sudan's Darfur region, Mercy Corps continues to assist — and help protect — more than 117,000 displaced persons.

As the Darfur crisis enters its third year, peacekeeping forces find themselves unable to protect innocent families. Humanitarian access to remote locations is becoming harder by the day, putting civilians at risk — especially women and children.

Recent United Nations reports indicate that the situation has gravely deteriorated over the last year:

• 3.6 million people have been affected by the conflict, up more than 49 percent from the previous year.
• More than two million people have been forced from their homes, a substantially larger number than estimates made in 2005.
• Over 1.8 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance — an increase of more than 300 percent from just a year ago.

Mercy Corps has been providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance — and protection — to displaced families for more than two years. We currently have nearly 200 veteran aid workers in Darfur, where they continue to help people meet their most basic needs. The agency's focus includes improved sanitation systems, clean water, distribution of relief items and building safe spaces where children can learn and play.

"When I visited the camps [in early July 2006], I was uplifted that the situation has tremendously improved in some ways," said Mercy Corps communications officer Cassandra Nelson. "Unfortunately, once you walk out of the camps, the situation is as bad or worse than it was two years ago."

One of the agency's responses has been to reduce the amount of firewood that women must collect to heat water and cook food. Mercy Corps is continuing to teach determined women how to construct and use fuel-efficient stoves that require about half the wood as a campfire would. This limits the amount of time women have to spend collecting wood outside the camp boundaries, where they are more vulnerable.

"The women are just so thankful for the fuel-efficient stove project," Nelson said. "They go out once or twice a week to collect wood for themselves [instead of every day like they used to]. It's made a big difference in their personal security."

Success is difficult to come by in the face of Darfur's harsh reality. So, as we celebrate the amazing perseverance of the women in the camps we serve, we must also re-commit to helping displaced families in any way we can.