Little Vicky Alison had a rough start in life. Her family was very poor, and her mother died when Vicky was just two years old. She was being raised by her grandmother when outreach personnel from a local organization in Nzara identified Vicky as HIV positive.

The organization partners with Sudan Relief Fund to provide medical and vocational assistance to children born into HIV, who are often ostracized by their communities and left with no means to survive.

Through the support program, Vicky regularly received nutritional support, which is critical to survival for an HIV positive child. At one point a relative took her to a local practitioner known as a witch doctor, who removed Vicky from her antiretroviral meds. Vicky’s condition drastically worsened.

Fortunately, outreach workers checked on Vicky. The organization’s tracing program follows up with patients who have lost March 2023 touch and no longer come in to receive treatment. When they checked on Vicki, they found her almost at the point of death.

Vicky was immediately rushed to St. Theresa’s Hospital, a Sudan Relief Fund supported facility in Nzara. She was treated in intensive care for almost a month. When she continued to decline, she was put on a “last resort” round of HIV medication treatment, which caused disfiguring swelling of her limbs and body.

Somehow this little girl kept fighting back. Remarkably, her health gradually improved. After a long stay, she was discharged from the hospital and moved to a foster home to live under the care of a foster parent associated with the outreach program. Here she is at last thriving in a comfortable and supportive environment.

Vicky can attend primary school now, and she even excels as one of the brightest students in her class. Vicky feels valued and cared for. These days she is often seen running and playing, with a radiant smile across a face filled with hope— all thanks to the miracle of God’s love provided to her through the generous donors to Sudan Relief Fund and our caring partners in the region.

The Comboni Missionaries have had a presence in South Sudan for a hundred years and have seen it all. Sudan Relief Fund has been funding programs with this extraordinary religious community because of their commitment to the people of South Sudan. One of the missions located in a border town in South Sudan was witness to a brutal conflict which escalated in 2017.

Looking for safety, people there found refuge just across the border in Palorinya, Uganda. To continue their missionary work and to support the people that were now refugees, Sudan Relief Fund provided funding to construct a new mission in Palorinya.

Construction of the mission was completed in 2019. In October of 2022, SRF funded the development of a refugee skill-training center in Palorinya. This funding will be utilized to build halls, purchase teaching materials, and provide teacher salaries for the program.

This newly built skill training center will provide education and economic empowerment to those whose lives have been upended by the ongoing struggles in South Sudan. The goal, ultimately, is to equip them not only with the skill set to provide economic independence but also skills that will facilitate the rebuilding of their communities when they return to South Sudan.

The program will also offer much-needed counseling services to a population that has been ravaged by war, poverty, and famine. The refugee communities include more than 20,000 women, many of whom have been victims of rape and other atrocities.

By providing for the professional, physical, and spiritual needs of these children of God, the Comboni Missionaries – in conjunction with SRF and its donor network – are building the foundation for a brighter future across the region.

Inspired by the values of the Gospel and the social teachings of the church, the Catholic University of South Sudan has delivered invaluable education to the people of the region for over a decade. To date, the university has graduated thousands of students, raising up thousands of virtuous leaders in one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Sudan Relief Fund has proudly partnered with the Catholic University to meet its ongoing needs and was able to respond to several emergency requests in 2022 to provide critical assistance in multiple areas.

SRF provided funding in tuition scholarships for displaced orphans, single mothers, and other enrollees who have lost their sources of funding due to the worsening economic crisis in South Sudan.

SRF also provided funds to pay—and feed—staff. The University offers feeding programs for its full-time staff because the salary they earn is not sufficient to provide for all of their daily needs.

Funds were also allocated toward maintaining the operational costs of the University, including generator maintenance and repairs, office supplies, utilities, and vehicle maintenance, as well as procuring hygiene and sanitary items and daily necessities for those who board at the school.

Catholic University Vice Chancellor, Fr. Matthew Pagan, wrote, “The Catholic University is delighted to Sudan Relief Fund for supporting us. We wish to express our appreciation for your kind consideration.”

The congregation of St. Martin de Porres in Nebbi delivers God’s grace by working to assist many of the 1.4 million South Sudanese refugees who fled to Uganda amid the ongoing violence and desperate conditions in their home country. This blessed work faced major obstacles, first with the Covid-19 pandemic and then, in 2022, with the outbreak of fast-spreading Ebola.

Rev. Bro. Samuel Hakim Alberto, Community Superior and Project Manager for the St. Martin de Porres Brothers, reached out to SRF in October. “In this region, deficiency and poverty come every year in differing degrees,” he wrote. “This year has been seeing a more major change. Without the help and support of Sudan Relief Fund, life would be unbearable given the needs of our young children, street children, and orphans.”

“In such conditions, poor families can’t afford to buy food to keep their children healthy and eventually, they need emergency aid and become totally dependent on providential or external help.” SRF was able to provide $25,000 to meet this urgent need. The money was used to purchase food items such as maize, beans, sorghum, rice, cooking oil, salt, and onions, as well as firewood and transport for the refugee camps operated by the Brothers.

Rev. Alberto reports, “The contribution that Sudan Relief Fund has made is real encouragement to the poor children in the region. Your gift has enabled us to carry out the love, care, and compassion of Christ to those in dire distress and urgent need of help.”

“Your support means a chance of health and happiness, perhaps even the difference between life and death. We are greatly humbled and promise always to pray for you that God may always bless the work of your hands.”