The Role of the IRC in North Sudan
The IRC began work in Sudan in 1981 with Ethiopian refugees. During the 1984-1985 Ethiopian famine, emergency care was given to 125,000 refugees. From 1991-1998, the IRC managed an U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance grant that provided sub-grants to seven national and nine international non-governmental organizations (NGO's) for health, nutrition, water, sanitation and flood preparedness.
Since 2000, the IRC Sudan has run programs in the Nuba Mountains in water and sanitation, health, agriculture, local initiatives and peace building. The program is carried on two sides of a former frontline community and intends to contribute to re-establishing communication between the two sides.
IRC is now responding to a grave humanitarian situation created by flooding in Kassala State in July, affecting over 100,000 people with destroyed houses, health clinics, and schools. IRC is responding with emergency assistance in water and sanitation, shelter, hygiene promotion and health awareness.
Programs in North Sudan
Civil Society in Khartoum State
The project targets 30 Community Based Organizations in four displaced person camps surrounding Khartoum, providing preschool/kindergarten facilities to enable women with children to participate in community activities while their children are cared for. The training focuses on peace building and gender awareness. The project also seeks to strengthen advocacy of partner NGOs through research projects, building of a database, workshops, publication of a newsletter on IDPs and community campaigns. The final component is an income-generating scheme that combines vocational skills training and a microcredit program to provide sustainability of these organizations and their future activities. Funded by Stichting Vluchteling, this project is managed by the IRC and Fellowship for African Relief (FAR), and implemented with five national NGO partners.
Humanitarian Assistance, Kassala
The IRC has been implementing a humanitarian assistance intervention in five camps around Kassala in East Sudan since 2000, focusing on water, sanitation, and shelter needs of over 20,000 internally displaced persons.
The IRC provides hygiene awareness promotion, drilling of boreholes, and construction of family pit-latrines and provision of shelters. Staff have assisted the community in constructing camp water drainage channels to reduce flooding during rainy season. The hygiene promotion unit assists the community to develop an effective solid waste disposal system to provide a cleaner environment and reduce vector disease.
Water and Sanitation, Malakal
Since 1999, IRC, with OFDA funding, has worked in Malakal town, and by spring 2003 IRC will have constructed almost 1,500 household latrines for 9,000 persons. IRC also installed new water pipes to increase access to clean drinking water to an estimated 37,380 people in Malakal, and formed committees to manage water, sanitation, and latrine construction; and assist project masons to set-up small businesses to produce water and sanitation materials.
IRC has trained a total of 45 Community Hygiene Promoters to conduct home visits, cleaning campaigns and mass education on hygiene promotion, public health and sanitation.
Nuba Mountains
Since February 2002, the IRC has run a program in the Nuba Mountains, covering water and sanitation, health, agriculture, local initiatives, capacity building, poverty alleviation and peace building. A total of 59 villages received humanitarian assistance in:
Food Security: Under an OFDA grant, IRC distributed seeds and hand tools. The formation of seed banks is crucial for sustainability setting up local seed sources to introduce improved seed varieties to enhance production and reduce need for external inputs. Agricultural representatives from 59 villages received training setting up seed banks, land conservation, water harvesting and assistance in disease and pest control.
Water and Sanitation: Training and material inputs, rehabilitation of existing water pumps, digging of new water sources, and training mechanics to maintain the pumps. Under the EC Humanitarian Plus grant, the IRC is constructing approximately 130 household latrines.
Health: Under current EC Humanitarian Plus and Japanese Embassy programs, 17 health centers have been constructed, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF, who will supply essential drugs and basic medical equipment. Selected communities participate by providing unskilled labor and masons.
Community Mobilization: Under the EC Humanitarian Plus and OFDA program, 44 persons received training as Community Animators, on socio-economic issues, including health, sanitation, gender and conflict transformation. They are now engaged in mobilizing communities, conducting home visits and public campaigns. The team collects information in target communities related to key socio-economic dimensions, and analysis of survey data will help measure program impact.
Human Rights of Women and Children in Wau, Baher El Ghazal State
Education and awareness-raising campaigns promote human rights in Wau, especially rights of women and children. The project, first implemented in 2001, held training workshops, produced educational and advocacy material, including reports about children and prisons in Wau, and promoted the rights of internally displaced children and prisoners.
Sudanese Youth Peace Building Initiative
Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, this project encourages Sudanese male and female youth to become central actors in civil society efforts to make the peace process more attuned to the needs and concerns of ordinary citizens. In its first year of implementation, the program aims to:
1. Increase awareness among youth and the general population about the causes of the conflict, the trajectory of the peace process and the role youth can play in influencing it.
2. Enhance organizational and networking capacities of youth to identify and deal with local conflicts in 13 locations by facilitating local youth peace structures.
3. Enhance youth participation in conflict resolution, awareness-raising, advocacy and networking, to be able to mediate and influence local-level conflicts.
Hold state-level youth meetings to allow youth to share experiences, and form or link up with existing state-level youth structures and strategies for dealing with conflict.
The project is being implemented in eight states in partnership with Azza Women Association and the Juba University Centre for Peace and Development Studies.
Women's Self-Reliance Program, Baher El Ghazal State
In 1998, IRC, with financial assistance of Stichting Vluchteling and Royal Government of the Netherlands, began a Women in Development program aimed at improving quality of life of displaced women in camps in Khartoum State. Based on this program success, IRC then expanded the women’s self-reliance program to East Bank camp, Wau, Baher el Ghazal; Aweil; and Raja. The program is based on three components:
1) Empowerment training on gender awareness, health, leadership, legal awareness, peace-building, human rights and the importance of women working together;
2) Vocational skills training to establish viable income generating activities; self-help and credit schemes to assist women to form and establish group saving schemes to start and run small businesses.
3) Gender training for men to improve gender equity.
Reproductive Health Program, Wau, Bahr El Ghazal
The IRC's Reproductive Health program in Western Bahr El Ghazal, operating since 1999, is integrated with Primary Health Care. The IRC clinic operates five days a week, with a daily average attendance ranging between 40-90 patients. The services are directed to the internally displaced persons but do not exclude others who come from the town or surrounding locations. The clinic provides primary health care, treatment of pregnant women with endemic and seasonal diseases; immunization services for children under five; antenatal care; referrals; health education; family planning, including contraceptive pills, condoms and education. IRC's Sexually-Transmitted Diseases Clinic is the only area clinic providing STD management. Women from Wau town also come to the clinic to deliver, encouraged by the good quality care, free services and baby kit. UNICEF provides essential drugs. The IRC program in Wau also includes Reproductive Health training for the health ministry, NGO's and IRC staff.
