A Step Forward in Darfur

Photo: Henry McInnes/Sunday Mail for Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps Scotland is preparing to enter Darfur to help thousands of Sudanese impacted by the continuing strife there. These are families who have lost nearly everything — their homes, their farms, their loved ones — and have been living in tent camps ever since.

Until this March, Mercy Corps worked in Darfur for five years, providing lifesaving assistance to more than 200,000 people each day. When the government of Sudan revoked the registration of 13 international aid agencies, including Mercy Corps, we immediately started looking for other ways to help this besieged population.

Now, with your support, Mercy Corps Scotland will draw on our experience to assist families enduring what the UN has called "the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

In Darfur today, according to the UN, 460,000 people are unable to get health services. Tens of thousands of families may go without food. And more than 1 million lives are now at risk.

Mercy Corps Scotland also plans to work in what's known as the Three Areas — areas heavily affected by Sudan's 21-year civil war and considered critical to lasting peace.

Mercy Corps worked to strengthen communities in each of the three areas by building resource centers and supporting local organizations in their efforts to rebound from 21 years of civil war. Each of these three areas — Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile state and the Abyei area — was singled out for special treatment in the 2005 peace agreement that ended the north-south conflict.

Please help meet the urgent needs of displaced families in Darfur's understaffed camps and join the effort to bring peace to all of Sudan with a gift to Mercy Corps.