“Living Between Starvation and Death”

Help Double the Food to Save the Starving

What would it be like to escape your home on a moment’s notice, because a threat to your lives suddenly dropped like a bombshell? What if it was too dangerous to go back home and your neighborhood was destroyed? What if you had no food, no water, and no shelter?

But the scenario gets worse. What if in the midst of that escape, you and your family had to dodge bullets, avoid explosions, and sneak past deadly enemies to get to a safer place? Worst of all, when you finally made it to a safer place with your family, you discovered there was no food.

For eleven million people fleeing Sudan’s civil war, this is the reality they face every day. They have nothing left. Nothing to go back to. And now the most immediate threat – the risk of starvation.

Children are the first to lose the battle to starvation in Sudan’s massive famine and war.

The World’s Worst Famine

A severe famine looms over much of Sudan. Weather extremes of floods and drought brought on a food shortage that spread exponentially when fighting from the war halted food production and militia blocked commerce routes. Nearly 3 million people face imminent starvation. Families. Children. Elderly. No one spared.

We’re fighting to stop the tragic deaths by shipping as much emergency food as we can to save starving families.

Your partnership has been crucial to saving lives. Now more need help.

The United Nations has declared this the worst humanitarian catastrophe in today’s world – a famine of epic proportions with no immediate end in sight.

A group of generous supporters of Sudan Relief Fund moved by the enormity of this tragedy are taking bold steps – pledging to match every dollar raised up to $200,000 through April 30. This is an incredible opportunity to send lifesaving nutritional food packets to people caught in the world’s most devastating famine.

$200,000 Matching Gift

In parts of Sudan, death from starvation is not just a threat but already a reality. In a refugee camp in the hard hit Zamzam region, one child is dying every hour, every day – an unthinkable travesty in today’s world. Before the next hour is up, another child will die from having no food.

Holding each other. A sister tries to comfort her baby brother after the two were orphaned in the deadly war and famine.

Instant Nutrition in a Packet

Your support is helping to stop this tragedy. 

The nutritional food supplement known as Plumpy’Nut comes in a packet filled with a peanut-based paste, milk powder, vitamins, and minerals. NGOs worldwide use it to treat the severely malnourished. It’s easy to ship, needs no refrigeration, and has a long shelf life. Here in Sudan and South Sudan, those little packets mean the difference between life and death.

Since the start of Sudan’s violent conflict, we’ve been on the ground delivering shipments of lifesaving Plumpy’Nut to ward off starvation in refugee camps. This is happening because of generous donors like you.

You’ve also enabled us to send more Plumpy’Nut to Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains, to treat the barrage of malnourished children that has tripled in the last months. Your help is bringing hope.

But the number of displaced people pouring into camps keeps growing. In the border camp of Renk between Sudan and South Sudan, 2,000 more people enter every day. We can fight this crisis – but not without your help.

We hope you will take advantage of the amazing opportunity to double the number of Plumpy’Nut packets we can send to children and families desperately waiting for aid with our matching pledge.

The Most Vulnerable

Heartbreakingly, it is the smallest and most vulnerable – the children and elderly – who suffer the hardest when malnourishment hits. And they are the first to succumb to starvation’s deadly grasp.

A severely malnourished child experiences stunted growth that will never return. Lack of nutrients causes a child’s immune system to weaken, so she soon becomes defenseless. She will usually die from sickness or infection, because her body is too weak and helpless to fight even the slightest infection.

As the humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues to spiral, UNICEF reports 3.7 million children under 5 are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, and are in need of “immediate lifesaving treatment.”

Will the world hear their cries? Over 3 million severely malnourished children under 5 need immediate lifesaving treatment.

The Cries of Mothers

Fatima Mohamed is a desperate mother in Central Darfur. She recorded a video pleading for help to feed her children. A photo was posted of her emaciated little boy. “Anything,” she said, “even something small – they are living between starvation and death.”

“They are living between starvation and death.” – Fatima Mohamed, Mother in famine stricken Darfur

Qisma Abdirahman waits in line at a refugee camp to pick up a small bag containing her food ration. But she is only going through the motions now. The meager ration doesn’t need to stretch as far anymore. Three of her children died of malnutrition and sickness in the past four months. The oldest was three, another was two, and her last was a six-month-old baby.

“My first child died on the way home from the pharmacy, and the second child died after six days due to malnutrition,” she says. Her baby fell sick and died three days later.

Qisma’s family used to be farmers like many others in her region – but growing food was interrupted by the violence of war. Fields were burned, crops destroyed. Battles prevented planting. Soon there was no food. In some areas, militia cruelly use food as a weapon, blocking supply routes to isolate entire populations.

Plumpy’Nut nutrition packets are making a life and death difference. Many more are needed.

Making a Difference

But you have made – and continue to make – a difference for refugee families and their children. Thanks to your generosity during this crisis, grateful mothers are receiving food to bring jeopardized children back from the threat of starvation. Thanks to you, these mothers don’t have to endure the pain of watching their little ones waste away, growing only weaker by the day.

Unfortunately the need is great. As the war wears on, new refugee families increase in number every day. With our contacts on the ground, we are able to monitor the direction of the fighting and locate opportunities to deliver food relief, as well as identify the areas of greatest need. It is one of the ways SRF is able to make a tangible difference. 

Missionary doctor and hospital director, Dr. Tom Catena, has spent more than sixteen years working at Mother of Mercy Hospital in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. He’s been through the rigors of civil war here before. But he warns the situation today is the worst he’s experienced. He says, “We’re expecting a pretty bleak year.”

There is more work to do to stop this crisis. Time is short to save more children from the horrible fate of starvation. Right now you can impact twice as many lives. Any gift you share will send twice the amount of Plumpy’Nut to vulnerable children and refugee families.

Can you imagine a parent like Qisma having to watch helplessly as her children tragically perish from hunger? Your gift can put nutrition packets in the hands of more children and families suffering in the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

From now through April 30, every dollar donated will go twice as far – doubling the amount of Plumpy’Nut nutrition sent – thanks to compassionate matching grants urging others to join the movement to feed the hungry. 

To people suffering life threatening hunger, waiting by the day and by the hour for aid to come, your help has been making all the difference in the world. But time is the enemy for children fighting starvation. Please partner with us to help more today.

Sincerely,

Neil A. Corkery President