On the ground in Sudan

Sep 12th, 2008 2:01 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

Christine Chumbler from ONE Partner International Relief & Development just passed along this excellent account of her time in Malakal, Southern Sudan, where she documented IRD’s work distributing solar-powered radios and constructing road drainage systems.

As we stepped into the muddy equipment yard, 300 women wearing orange safety vests burst into song. They weren’t actually singing for me. They do it every morning before they set off for work, cleaning the streets of Malakal, Southern Sudan.

I had gone to Malakal to document International Relief & Development’s programs in the area, which also include distributing sturdy solar-powered radios to the farthest reaches of Upper Nile State and constructing road drainage systems there in the state capital. For the cleanup campaign, IRD worked with local church groups to recruit women for the project. They armed these women with not only the safety vests, brooms, and rubber gloves to do the work, but also knowledge on health and hygiene to reinforce the importance of their task.

These women are an incredible inspiration, most of them recently returned from years as refugees, many widowed with children, all eager to work and improve their lives. The women I talked to during my brief visit told me how filthy the central area of this city of 150,000 had been, how flies and mosquitoes thrived in the piles of rubbish and then spread disease. All of them had children who had been sick at one time or another. Nationwide, Sudan has 7.5 million cases of malaria each year.

With the income from their work with IRD, they are now able to take their sick children for treatment, but they hope that ultimately there won’t be as much disease around. Phoebe Nyarad, a team leader, told me that maybe this rainy season the cases of diarrhea, vomiting, and malaria will be reduced. I hope so.

In the meantime, I feel very privileged to have met these women, experienced their joy, and seen the difference organizations like IRD can make in their lives. Please join in the ONE Campaign’s fight to end global poverty, and help women like these in Malakal.

-Christine Chumbler, Publications Officer, International Relief & Development

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TAGS: ONE, Water and Sanitation