Sudan faces urgent need for aid, money

Local charity appeals for funds, volunteers

Dominic Garang

By RAMON GONZALEZO
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

After more than two decades of civil war, Southern Sudan is devastated and its people are in great need, says the president of an Edmonton charity following his return from the region.

"People in Canada need to know that the needs in Southern Sudan are great," says Dominic Garang, president of Sudcan Relief and Development Services, a volunteer group of Sudanese Canadians raising awareness of and financial aid for Southern Sudan.

"The people there need food, clean water and sanitation and health services," he said Aug. 24. "Education is also badly needed because during the war there was no formal education."

Witness the need

Garang, a father of nine, visited five of 10 states in Southern Sudan from June 25 to July 28. There he met with government officials as well as community leaders. The purpose of the visit was to witness the situation and define the role of the Sudcan Relief and Development Services as a humanitarian agency.

He spent a great deal of his time in the Bhar El Ghazal region.

"They don't have electricity; they don't have anything, any of the necessities for life.

"These people's needs are great. There is nothing there."

Garang spoke to the government of Southern Sudan about how it can improve the welfare of the people and available services, but there is little the government can do because "they don't have any money," he lamented.

"The international community promised to provide funds but they are not there (yet)."

He estimates that several million dollars are needed to solve the humanitarian problem in Southern Sudan.

In addition to money, there is a great need for international volunteers such as doctors and nurses and clinical medical officers, he said.

Community groups also asked Garang for mosquito nets to protect children from malaria.

Many agencies are working in the country but they can't cover all the needs, Garang said.

"The agencies concentrate in the areas they have been assigned but up to this time there are places where no agency has gone and visited and the people are really suffering."

Sudcan, on the other hand, goes wherever there is a need, he said.

Medical supplies needed

In Northern Bhar El Ghazal, Sudcan is currently providing rations of food for the communities and, in the months to come, will provide health facilities and medical supplies.

The group also plans to operate a boarding school for orphans.

The school is currently being built in partnership with the government and the community. More than 200 children aged up to 14 are registered.

"Kids are running around with nothing to do and we want to provide them with formal education," Garang said.

The civil war between the Islamic North and the Christian South went for more than 20 years, resulting in the deaths of 2.2 million people and displacing roughly 4.5 million people.

It damaged Sudan's economy and led to food shortages, resulting in starvation and malnutrition. The lack of investment during this time, particularly in the South, meant a generation lost access to basic health services, education and jobs.

A peace agreement between the southern rebels and the central government was reached in January 2005, granting Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum on independence. It created a co-vice-president position and allowed the North and South to split oil revenues equally, but also left both the North's and South's armies in place.

"We have refugee camps that are on the border of neighbouring countries like Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea and all the neighbouring countries that surround the Sudan," explained Garang.

"And we have internally displaced people who left their original villages from the South to the North."

Now that the peace is solid in Southern Sudan, displaced people want to return to their villages but those villages are in ruins. The government of Southern Sudan started moving people from the North to the South, placing them in location centres, where they receive food.

Some farmers leave their families in the location centres and walk long distances to their destroyed villages with nothing but the shirt on their backs, Garang explained.

"They (realize) they need to go back to their farms."

Garang will return to Sudan Sept. 15 and will visit the 10 states that make up Southern Sudan.

Plead their case

"The purpose is to see the need of the different regions and then to bring (that reality) to the attention of Canadians and of the Canadian government."

During his tour, Garang released about $10,000 raised by Sudcan in Edmonton for humanitarian needs. "We are seeking more (funds) because now we have a better idea about what the needs are," he said.

"In the boarding school that we will be operating we have to build water well. We will also have to acquire electricity generators to provide electricity for the school."

Those who wish to donate to Sudcan or to travel there as a volunteer can contact Garang at 428-9317.

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