Sam Worthington Is Heading to Darfur
February 28th, 2008 at 12:33 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons(InterAction President & CEO Sam Worthington is visiting humanitarian workers in Sudan.)
The trip to Khartoum was a typical flight to Europe followed by another seven hours in the air, landing just south of the Sahara. A few key strokes of the customs agent’s computer and my American passport, with its appropriate visa, had a new stamp. Welcome to Sudan. Khartoum is a new city for me, as dusty as Cairo, but without the tight concentration around the Nile. Oil wealth, with the occasional building built by Khadafi and new high rise residences, is slowly changing the cityscape of low, brown buildings, plenty of empty space, and the ever present minarets. I am traveling with Judith, on loan from another U.S. relief organization. The goal is to spend time in Khartoum to register our presence and get government permission to travel to El Fasher, in Darfur. It’s a time to meet with NGO country directors and get acquainted with the realities they manage. As humanitarians, with the invitation of a legitimate NGO operating in Darfur, in this case InterAction member Relief International, a “yes, you can travel” from the Sudanese government, is still thankfully routine. We shall see. If all works out well, I’ll be on the first UN flight out to Darfur on Monday.
I am traveling to Darfur with a simple mission in mind: to bring attention to the well-being of humanitarian workers living in Darfur, and to increase my understanding of the work performed by InterAction members.
-Sam Worthington, InterAction President & CEO
(Read more of his posts, photos and responses to readers’ questions at www.InterAction.org/SudanDiary.)
