Human Relief Foundation Launches Emergency Funding Appeal for Sudan

Flights to Sudan

Bradford-based international aid organisation Human Relief Foundation has called for emergency funding to support a quarter of a million people in desperate need after flooding in Sudan.

The organisation is currently providing food, water, shelter and blankets to some of the 250,000 people affected by heavy rain across the country.

But the charity, based at Claremont, has warned that recent reports indicate a rapid response is needed to help 50,000 families currently suffering as the situation continues to worsen.
According to reports, at least 53 people have been killed and 77 others injured across the country due to the recent spate of heavy rain and flooding, which has also destroyed thousands of homes since the beginning of August.  A total of 13 states have so far flooded, with more rain expected to fall over the coming weeks.

The World Health Organisation has issued reports calling for urgently- needed mobile health clinics, insect nets and clean water facilities to stop the spread of water borne diseases, and there is an urgent need to feed and shelter those who have been forced to leave their homes. More than 20,000 people are thought to be in extreme need, whilst the remaining 230,000 are in urgent need of assistance.
Dr Salah Daak, international programmes director for the Human Relief Foundation, said: The situation in Sudan is worsening. There are already a quarter of a million people in need of help and there are further rains anticipated.

Most at risk are elderly people, children and pregnant women. There is severe concern over the threat of illness, thirst and starvation. We urgently need the international community to respond and help us as much as they can.

The Foundation said £5 would provide a family in Sudan with clean water for a week and relieve the need for them to drink dirty and potentially deadly floodwater.

The charity has permanent offices in Khartoum, where it works with the World Health Organisation to run health clinics benefiting more than 130,000 poorly people every year. Last year these clinics vaccinated more than 14,000 children in Sudan against polio, tuberculosis, tetanus toxoid, diphtheria and rotavirus as part of one of the biggest immunisation efforts in the country.

The Human Relief Foundation , which was founded in 1991 in response to the war in Iraq, has international offices strategically placed to respond to emergency situations and works with the World Health Organisation, United Nations Development Programme and European Union to help those affected by disasters.