Darfur, Qaddafi and the United Nations

While Colonel Qaddafi is in the U.S. casting a shadow over the U.N. this week, the people of Darfur can place no hope in the Libyan leader's words - they know they are empty. As Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust in front of the U.N. assembly, Qaddafi pretends the situation in Darfur has nothing to do with him. Two peas in a pod, each having an exceedingly difficult time finding a hotel which will accommodate them in New York City while visiting the U.N.

Since 2004, Catholic Relief Services has been providing humanitarian relief despite enormous security risks. According to the CRS website:

Key activities include:

• food distribution to more than 150,000 people each month
• shelter assistance for displaced families
• distribution of essential household items
• educational projects including classroom construction and teacher training
• agricultural support through seed and tool fairs
• livestock health initiatives
• health and nutrition education
• extensive water and sanitation projects, including construction of water systems, latrines and hand-washing facilities

CRS provides this relief assistance in El Geneina and up the 85-mile corridor running north to Kulbus. Across the border in eastern Chad, CRS also works with a local Church partner, Secours Catholique et Developpement (Catholic Relief and Development), to manage three camps in Farchana, Kounoungou and Milé that are home to more than 50,000 refugees from Sudan.

CRS Sudan serves all people in need without discrimination, including those living in camps, nomadic communities affected by the conflict and communities hosting displaced people. While insecurity at times restricts service delivery, CRS reaches thousands of people in need each month.

In 2007, CRS launched a peacebuilding and vocational program in El Obeid in partnership with the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center. The project trains youth of different ethnicities coming from Nyala and other parts of Darfur, providing an opportunity for these youth to live together in shared dormitories, building common understanding through vocational, educational and recreational activities.

To learn more about Darfur and the ongoing crisis situation, visit Save Darfur. To read more about the efforts of CRS in Darfur and other locations, CLICK HERE. To make a donation to help CRS in its efforts in Darfur, the rest of Sudan and around the world, CLICK HERE.

To read other +Ponderings+ about the problems faced by Africans, CLICK HERE. The horrors these people face are unimaginable. Generations have been murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped.

President Obama promised to offer a plan to help Darfur and now we anxiously await his plan for a peaceful end to the atrocities taking place. Action is needed for the people of Darfur and Sudan and they need it NOW.

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