Famine Engulfs South Sudan

A Race to Save Children and Stop Starvation

For hungry children, food means the difference between life and death

Food Crisis Intensifies

As families continue to flee from the war in Sudan, thousands of refugees and returnees continue to cross into South Sudan each week – filling camps and intensifying an already catastrophic food insecurity crisis.

In South Sudan, 56 percent of the population faces high levels of acute food insecurity. Millions of children are suffering from acute malnutrition. The horrifying hunger crisis threatens not only lives today but the future of an entire generation. 

Sudan Relief Fund is committed to helping desperate families. We’re rushing food relief into places where others cannot go, and to people where all other sources of aid have been cut off. We ask you to partner with us in this urgent mission.

Severe hunger is taking a devastating toll on the youngest and most vulnerable

 The Faces of Famine

The numbers are staggering – but behind every number is a child, a family, and a life that once was before the war and famine came.

The team recently traveled to refugee camps like Doro and Makpandu in South Sudan. What they saw was both heartbreaking and encouraging. Hundreds of mothers were lined up outside in the dark, hours before the clinic opened, holding emaciated children. The sight was heartbreaking. But it was encouraging to know that thanks to you, those children would get help that day.

“Hundreds of mothers were lined up outside in the dark, hours before the clinic opened
in the morning, holding emaciated children in their arms.”

But there are so many more in need. Many refugee families have traveled hundreds of miles – mostly on foot through rough and often dangerous terrain – to find help, safety, and rest. They’re starving. They’re dehydrated. They need medical care.

Traveling from Sudan’s capital city to the Doro Refugee Camp is a distance of nearly 450 miles. To reach Makpandu Refugee Camp in Yambio is a total of 850 miles – the equivalent of walking from New York City to Savannah, Georgia with children, little to no food or water, and dodging dangers all along the way.

The population of the Doro Refugee Camp has soared to over 90,000 people. The need for food for the rising number of victims is colossal.

Mothers arrive with their children seeking food, medical care, and a chance to recover

“Keep Walking – The Border is so Close!”

Their stories are heartbreaking. Hanan described conditions in Kadugli before fleeing. “I knew it was time to leave, or we would die there. Either from hunger or from a bomb.”

Hanan’s journey took months. Her children repeatedly asked for food she did not have. She said the people they met along the way also had nothing. “They said, ‘keep walking, the border is so close.’ But it took us five more days, and those five days nearly killed us.”

She carried her two-year-old daughter, Fatma, on her back and held her youngest son in front of her, as they walked from morning until night. They drank muddy water from rain puddles to survive.

“By the time Sammy reached the clinic, he was too weak to answer
 when his mother called his name.”

The trip was brutal for Hanan’s youngest son Sammy, just 4 years old. By the time Sammy and his five siblings reached the clinic, he was too weak to answer when his mother called his name. His eyes did not open at the sound of her voice. All he could do was lie on the ground.  

Mothers are fighting every day to keep their children alive

You Can Save Malnourished Mothers and Children

There are hundreds of stories like Hanan’s, mothers doing anything to save their children.

Sudan Relief Fund has been on the ground providing food relief since the beginning of the war and famine. We’ve seen the devastation and the need. Fighting occupies fields that should be cultivated for food. Now they’re filled with soldiers and vehicles. Transportation routes to move supplies around the country are cut off.

 Help the Most Vulnerable

Our famine relief efforts are about even more than distributing food. You’re helping send vital supplies of Plumpy’Nut, the ready-to-use therapeutic food that delivers critical nutrition to the most severely malnourished children. We also support a Targeted Supplementary Feeding and Outpatient Therapeutic Program that puts nurses and medical aides into camps to treat vulnerable groups like children, and pregnant or nursing mothers. This vital aid is only possible with your help.

When Aid Shipments Stop Entirely

You’re helping save thousands of desperate families in refugee camps like Doro and Makpandu. The treatment made possible because of people like you can transform toddlers like Sammy from children who couldn’t open their eyes or respond to their mother’s voice, into healthy children who can smile and play.

This is the impact your support has. It’s more than a meal. It’s the difference between life and death. Whether a child like Sammy has a future or his young life is tragically cut short.

In Doro, food rations have stopped entirely. The UN has cut off aid distribution here – leaving a massive population of 90,000 with no support. Without action now, in two months malnutrition cases will skyrocket and Doro will be burying victims of starvation.

Emergency nutrition gives severely malnourished children the strength to recover

Racing Against Starvation

With our extensive network and years of working in this region, we can deliver aid when and where it’s needed most – even into some of the most difficult places when other humanitarian agencies simply cannot.

Sudan Relief Fund has walked with the people of Sudan and South Sudan for nearly three decades, but we have never seen the need greater than it is today. The remarkable impact your compassion has cannot be overstated. You make a lifesaving difference.

If you saw these lifeless, listless children like we have, we know you would drop what you’re doing and help them without delay. Every gift will put food packets into their hands and bring medical care into their lives. Today we’re asking you not to delay. It’s not an exaggeration to say their lives wait in the balance. Please be their answer.

Sincerely,

Neil A. Corkery President