Rush Help to Dr. Tom and Mother of Mercy Hospital
Supplies Desperately Needed in Face of War and Famine
The crisis in Sudan remains “the greatest humanitarian tragedy in the world.”– Dr. Tom Catena, Mother of Mercy Hospital
“Dr. Tom” and his team at Mother of Mercy Hospital – one of the few hospitals open in Sudan as the country reels under civil war – continues to strive to meet the ever intensifying needs of a region flooded by refugees who are injured or starving. While it’s currently the worst humanitarian crisis unfolding on the world stage, help hasn’t been coming for the vast majority of victims.
We can still help Dr. Tom and the hospital as they strive to save lives in the middle of incredible hardship.
The Crisis
Sudan’s civil war is entering its second year. The fighting brought planting in the nation to a halt, fueling a ghastly food shortage. Militia have commandeered many transportation and trade routes. The capital city is in ruins, business and services have ceased, and supplies are not getting to civilians.
To worsen the hunger crisis, the Nuba region has experienced two years of severe drought followed by a plague of locusts that destroyed last year’s harvest. The effects of war and famine have put millions at risk of starvation.
Like other parts of Sudan, the effects of this war and resulting famine have put millions here at risk of starvation.
Medicine is more critical now than ever, as Dr. Tom and his staff at Mother of Mercy gear up for the tremendous demand placed on the hospital by refugees, starving children, and injured civilians.
The doctor who puts himself at risk every day to save others, now depends on our help to send vital supplies so he can continue to serve the massive numbers of victims swept into the escalating crisis.
The weight of the world. Missionary Dr. Tom hasn’t seen conditions this bad in 16 years, as the hospital struggles to meet the staggering need.
Dr. Tom, who has seen perilous times before, recently sent out a social media plea declaring the severity of severe conditions. He said, “The Nuba Mountains are on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. With over 3 million people at risk of dying from hunger and no access to basic necessities, the situation is the worst I have witnessed in sixteen years.”
Sudan Relief Fund continues to work on the front lines of this disaster, bringing food, clean water, shelter, medical care, and rescue transport to suffering families, with the networks we’ve established over more than 25 years.
There’s a tremendous opportunity to triple the impact you can make right now. A faithful supporter who understands how critical conditions are, how important it is that Dr. Tom gets help, has offered to triple every dollar given now through October 2nd up to $200K!
The Crisis You Aren’t Hearing About
While the war ravaging Sudan continues to flood neighboring areas with millions of displaced families, the tragedy is not gaining attention on the world stage or the intervention needed to prevent a calamity.
“For a full year, the bodies have piled up in Sudan – and still the world looks away,” says Nesrine Malik, a reporter whose family members all fled their homes in Sudan’s capital. “It’s not so much a civil war as it is a war against civilians, whose….very lives have been the collateral damage.”
The victims. 2.5 million deaths by starvation could happen in September without large scale intervention, UN agencies warn.
A Crisis of Refugees
Nicholas Casey of the New York Times who embedded himself with a rebel group in the Nuba region reported, “Sudan’s war has left nearly 11 million people displaced from their homes — more than the entire population of New York City.” He added the disaster is “currently the single largest population of internal refugees anywhere in the world.”
Mother of Mercy offers a critical lifeline here where 9 out of 10 people now suffer malnourishment and 95 percent of hospitals are closed.
A Crisis of Hunger
The war has intensified the region’s food shortage to catastrophic levels, as Dr. Tom described. UN agencies warn millions could soon die of starvation, including severely malnourished children.
“On our journey, we saw the graves of infants and the elderly who we were told died of hunger this year, and we encountered children and their parents stripping bushes for edible leaves,” said Casey.
Mohammed Maki, from the Tutma village of Nuba, concurred as he climbed a tree and began hacking off small branches. His children, with visibly swollen stomachs, collected the leaves they would boil for their daily meal. “No one has food. We are all eating bush leaves,” Mohammed said.
A Crisis of Medical Care
Perhaps as deadly as the appalling lack of food is the absence of medical care. With hospitals closed and millions of displaced families setting up camp to live as refugees, there’s no medicine. There are no doctors to be found. The majority of hospitals in Sudan’s cities have long since closed. Getting sick or injured quickly becomes a death sentence now.
Three year-old Iman and five year-old Zura were two tragic young victims. Their mother Mahmoud lamented how her two youngest children contracted infections that led to diarrhea and skin rashes. She was distraught when she couldn’t find any medicine or medical care in the camp. In April, little Iman and Zura fell sick. By June it was too late – they were gone.
Zahra Adam Abdullah cries over the lack of medical care for her son, 17 year-old Muhammad Fathi. He was injured by gunfire when they fled the city. His right leg had to be amputated above the knee. They couldn’t stay in the city as artillery shells continued to riddle the hospital. Zahra managed to get them to the nearest refugee camp, but conditions were little improvement. Her son’s amputation wound became infected. They have no food or medicine, and she fears he will soon die without getting help.
“We have nothing to eat, and my son’s wound is rotting,” she cries.
Last hope. The children’s ward at Mother of Mercy Hospital is swamped with mothers bringing their malnourished children.
Providing Critical Help Where No One Else Is
Dr. Tom is no stranger to the grueling conditions of wartime. Perhaps it’s why he remains resolute about staying at the hospital to help desperate people in the Nuba Mountains. People like Zahra’s son who have no access to medical help. “If I leave, people will die,” he says.
When Dr. Tom endured Sudan’s first civil war years ago, he remained at Mother of Mercy Hospital despite humanitarian organizations insisting their people evacuate. He quipped, “It was a good thing I was a volunteer, so they couldn’t fire me.”
Nor is Dr. Tom any stranger to the sacrifices it takes to endure times like these. He’s ducked into foxholes to survive bombing raids, pulled all night stretches to treat truckloads of injured, and endured endemic diseases like typhoid and malaria that almost killed him.
Through it all, he says “without a doubt” his faith keeps him at his post, in a place where he sees “far too much tragedy for one person to bear alone.”
The war has intensified the region’s food shortage. The hospital has an urgent need for medicine and emergency nutrition supplies.
Dr. Tom Needs Our Help
Now Dr. Tom finds himself and the hospital he started in a critical place. His is the only hospital for hundreds of miles in all directions. Together with its small satellite clinics, it is the only source of medical care for millions.
Every year our donors supply nearly all the medicine for Mother of Mercy Hospital, saving countless preventable deaths. Pregnant women in distress who make it to the maternity ward before childbirths end in tragedy. Children who receive medicine and surgery in time to give them a future they would have lost. Injured patients whose wounds are treated before infection sets in and escalates.
Sudan’s civil war and epic famine now put Dr. Tom and Mother of Mercy Hospital at risk. He needs our help to replenish depleted supplies, especially in a time of great demand on the hospital – a time where supplies are hard to come by in Sudan. Dr. Tom is counting on our help to support him through this crisis.
“A third of the people…are at risk of famine,” Dr. Tom warns. “That includes us.”
The world is largely looking away from Sudan’s massive ongoing tragedy. But we mustn’t see our brother in need and turn away. Please help send vital supplies to Dr. Tom so he can continue helping others, as he courageously puts himself on the line every day.
PS – The suffering from Sudan’s war is unimaginable. Your gift will send supplies that Dr. Tom and his team cannot do without during this precarious time of war and famine. You can make an incredible difference. But please act now.
