Christian World Service (CWS), a commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia has announced that it has made an initial contribution of AUD$15,000 to a joint Action by Churches Together (ACT International) and CARITAS International appeal to raise financial support for 500,000 people in Sudan.
The appeal aims to raise US$17.5 million worldwide to provide shelter, water, sanitation, basic sleeping and kitchen materials for people in camps and burned-out villages in the Darfur Province in Western Sudan. The program also aims to provide supplementary food rations to 50,000 children under five and education for school-aged children.
The Darfur Province is home to some six million nomads and farmers. It is estimated that there are over two million conflict-affected people in Darfur in need of emergency support.
The UN and humanitarian agencies in Sudan have described the situation as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Recent statements by the UN Security Council have described the situation as one of ethnic cleansing through the use of mass rape, summary killing and a “scorched earth” policy.
This is the first formal joint appeal between Protestants, Orthodox and Catholics in Darfur. Their goal is to help people affected by militia attacks maintain their basic daily activities with dignity and stabilise and then reduce environmental and health-related diseases. The CWS partner in Sudan, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) will be a key respondent on the ground in Darfur.
CWS has also announced that it is initially sending AUD$15,000 from its emergency fund to ACT International for families whose houses have been demolished in Rafah, Palestine.
CWS is a member of ACT and has been able to work with them to provide consolidated responses to emergencies in Sudan, Liberia and Iraq and Iran in the past few years. CWS seeks to assist those experiencing oppression and injustice during emergencies by working with partners throughout the world to bring relief and support.
July 2004
GIFTS FOR THE DARFUR EMERGENCY CAN BE SENT TO CHRISTIAN WORLD SERVICE
VIA WEBSITE www.ncca.org.au/give-christmas_bowl,
TOLL-FREE PHONE 1800 025 101 OR
MAILED TO LOCKED BAG 199 SYDNEY 1230 AUSTRALIA
