When You Have Nothing Left
Refugee Kits Save Lives When All Is Lost
Julian was serving customers in her modest tea shop on the morning that everything changed.
What started as a typical day in the town market suddenly turned to a nightmare. She remembers the sound of distant gunshots that grew louder until they seemed to surround her. She looked up and saw women and children frantically running and crying. People were fleeing in every direction.
In the chaos, Julian was forced to abandon her home and her beloved tea shop. She left everything behind in an instant, for her life and the safety of her children. Julian never imagined she would be forced to leave her home in Tombura.
When people like Julian and her children are left with nothing, what they need most are the essential resources to survive another day. They need food, water, shelter.
Refugee kits are an inexpensive and effective way to meet this immediate need. Designed for displaced people in crisis, they provide essential tools to survive when you have nothing left.
Upheaval in Tombura Yambio
Violent clashes in Tombura Yambio and across the border in the Central African Republic, drove desperate families to look for safety near Ave Maria parish. Families just like Julian and her children.
Tens of thousands are displaced in western South Sudan following violence and disaster, including hundreds of orphans.
A quiet community directed by Father Avelino, Ave Maria parish is a place of refuge in Western Equatoria welcoming families who fled violence or disaster, providing a place to start over. But resources are running out as the number of people coming for help continues to escalate.
At least 84,600 internally displaced people (IDPs) are stranded in remote areas of Tombura County. They face severe shortages of clean drinking water, food, and essential medicines. A local leader, Mathew Mabenge, appealed for assistance. “The situation is not good – no water, no food, and no agricultural tools,” he lamented. “Grasses and farms were [destroyed].”
More than 500 people fled sudden violence in the Central African Republic, also seeking refuge across the border in Western Equatoria state.
“More than 500 civilians are now sheltering here with nothing,” said Gift Francis, a South Sudanese resident. “They have no food, no clean water and no proper accommodation. Many fled with only the clothes they were wearing.”
One of the displaced, Mborinaani Sebastian, said he escaped with his family when shooting broke out. “We didn’t know who the attackers were. We just ran,” he said. “People are hungry, tired and suffering…we urgently need help.”
“People are hungry, tired, and suffering. We urgently need help.“
They left everything to flee for their lives. Now these mothers wonder how they and their children will survive.
Sudan’s War is Reaching into South Sudan
But another force is adding to the number of displaced families.
The civil war in Sudan, now in its fourth year, has driven families not just over the border to South Sudan, where border camps are overcrowded and under-resourced. It’s forced the displaced even further into the country to places like Western Equatoria.
Father Avelino is committing all the resources he has to help families in desperate circumstances. But their numbers are increasing every day. He urgently needs help to provide for them.
Refugee kits offer a solution.
THE DIFFERENCE YOUR GIFT MAKES
$66 provides refugee kits for 3 families
$132 sends refugee kits to 6 families
$195 supports 9 families with refugee kits
Imagine escaping a deadly and traumatizing event. Your family survived. You made it to a safe place. But you have nothing. You traveled for days. You haven’t eaten. You couldn’t find clean water. You and your children are exhausted, pushed beyond almost what your bodies and emotions can bear.
In that moment someone greets you by giving you supplies – a kit containing vital resources like non-perishable food items, a clean water container, cooking pots, eating utensils, soap, blankets, tarps, and mosquito nets.
A lifeline of hope. Devastated families receive refugee kits like these when they make it to a camp.
At a time of overwhelming crisis, this gift means everything. It means relief. It means your family will be OK for now. It means you can take a deep breath, eat, drink, clean up, shelter, and rest. It means hope in place of despair.
Refugee kits are a lifeline for people who’ve lost everything.
With just $66, you can give three families essential supplies to survive right now, until they can find a long-term solution. A gift of $132 reaches six families with lifesaving help. $198 provides the urgent needs for nine families struggling to survive displacement.
Refugee kits are efficient because they bring together many different survival resources into one place, ensuring a family’s immediate needs will be taken care of.
Help for Orphans who Lost Their Parents
Since February of this year, another 700 families are reportedly stranded in makeshift shelters outside a village school in Tombura Yambio. Included in the displaced are more than 150 orphaned children whose parents were killed in attacks. They are in dire need of food, clean water, and basic resources to survive.
You can help rush refugee kits to families and children like these to meet their immediate needs, and give them dignity, comfort, and hope.
Women and children are often left the most vulnerable victims of war. The essentials in a refugee kit save their lives.
Small Cost – Big Results
One of the many benefits of lifesaving refugee kits is they are an affordable way to make a big difference. For a little, you can do so much for those in need. When a family loses everything, they need help right now. Refugee kits make an immediate impact.
A Kit Filled with Hope
The situation on the ground is urgent. Father Avelino needs support to help the increasing numbers of displaced. Refugee kits help orphaned children trying to survive on their own in encampments. These lifesaving gifts provide practical help, share God’s love, and bring hope.
“If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” – James 2:16
Sometimes we want to help but we don’t know how. The problem seems so large and far away. We wonder what we can possibly do? Sending refugee kits makes the swiftest impact for families or orphans who just experienced crushing loss. Any gift you provide will send lifesaving refugee kits to families and children who are desperately waiting for help.
Food, clean water, shelter, cooking tools and more in these kits help families until they can start over.
PS — Other organizations, including a UN peacekeeping base, have left this area, leaving displaced families and children with nowhere to turn without our help. Please consider helping people in desperate need. No one should be abandoned in a time of crisis.
Increase Your Gift at No Extra Cost!
Did you know you may be able to double the amount of your gift without giving an additional dollar of your own? Thousands of companies participate in Corporate Match programs. This means they match dollar-for-dollar the amount their employees donate to charitable organizations – doubling your gift! Imagine creating twice the impact of your contribution.
Learn more about the Corporate Match Program.
