As Sudan emerged from its 20-year long, internal conflict, further fighting broke out in the western region of Darfur, exacerbating the problem of the huge numbers of displaced people and unaccompanied children. Many of these children found themselves in government camps for Internally Displaced Persons, or they fled to the city of Khartoum, where they were forced into a life on the streets.

Our work in Sudan

We have been working in the State of Khartoum since 1998, developing the country’s first state-approved Foster Care programme for children living on the streets or in Internally Displaced Persons Camps.

Based on the success of this work, we were invited to develop a system of family-based care for babies that were being abandoned on the streets of the capital city, Khartoum. These babies were then taken to the Maygoma institution where their future was bleak. Research showed that in the five years preceding 2003, of the 2,500 babies that were brought to the Maygoma institution, only 400 survived.

Our challenge was to develop an alternative family care system for abandoned babies and prevent children from being separated from their birth families in the first place. This has involved changing public attitudes and breaking down the stigma that children face when they are born out of wedlock. Through the development of our innovative system, over 2,500 babies have been placed in families and we have prevented the abandonment of hundreds of babies.

We have further developed our work in Khartoum and have established Community Hubs in poor and marginalised communities across the city so that they can address the needs of their vulnerable children and families. The impact of our work is now being felt beyond the state of Khartoum. We have been invited by UNICEF to work with the authorities in Kordofan, Darfur and the Nuba Mountains to establish alternative family care systems that will promote the safety and protection of thousands of children in areas of conflict and instability.

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