Sudan

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Since it became independent in 1956, Sudanese daily life has been dominated by war. It was host to Africa's longest running conflict which in the last 20 years has resulted in two million deaths, orphaned 200,000 children and driven four million people from their homes. This has created a nation of displaced people and unaccompanied children who have fled from different ethnic areas of the country to Khartoum.

We have been working in Sudan since 1998. Our work currently focuses on Khartoum City, to
where a large portion of the
population displaced by war
has fled.

We have developed the country's first state-approved, regulated Foster Care programme for children who have been orphaned or separated from their parents as a result of the war and are living on the streets of Khartoum, or in camps on the outskirts of the city.

We are also closing down an institution for abandoned babies by extending our current foster care programme and devising preventative services which we hope will break the cycle of institutionalisation.

Closing institutions - The 'Maygoma' Project
We are now overseeing the closure of an institution for abandoned babies in Khartoum. It is estimated that 110 babies are left on the streets of Khartoum or in hospitals each month. Of these, approximately 50 die on the streets. The rest are admitted to an institution called Maygoma. We are leading up a team of experts from the Ministry of Social and Cultural Affairs, UNICEF and other NGOs, and are aiming to close the institution by the end of March 2007 and place over 1,000 children in loving foster families.

We are also working to prevent babies from being abandoned in the first place by changing attitudes and policies towards single mothers, and liasing with the hospitals that 'feed' Maygoma. We work closely with both the Government and local communities to ensure the long-term sustainability of our projects in Sudan.

Foster Care Programmes
Hope and Homes for Children has worked in partnership with local NGOs to set up family homes for children who have no locatable family. Caring foster parents head up each home and look after up to 10 children. We try to ensure that the children in each home are from the same tribe so that they are able to retain their cultural identity.

This Foster Care Programme has gained support from the Sudanese Government, and they now want to replicate the model in other areas of the country