I came to Pakistan for Christmas and New Year to be with Alastair who is working for the British High Commission in Islamabad, but my thoughts are in Darfur as we approach the new year.  Signs of drought were already so pitifully obvious when we were in Sudan in November that I cannot but approach 2010 with trepidation.   Yet Kids for Kids has achieved so much I am sure, given support, we can make an even bigger impact.   May be other organisations will at last copy our approach?   When people ask me what my ambitions are for Kids for Kids I say that it is simple - not to be needed any more!   But that ambition is further off than ever.  Drought is going to cause immense hardship and I need help now, both financial and in Sudan.   I need to find more partners to implement our projects, partners I can trust to put the needs of children first.  My New Year's resolutions start with Kids for Kids - to help more children as quickly as we can, but there will be no compromise - our projects have to be long term, self sustainable and run by the villagers themselves.  

 On a personal front it has not been an easy Christmas.   Alastair had a bad riding accident when a stallion threw its rider and made for his horse which bolted.   It is such a relief to have been here in Pakistan and able to be of some help to him.   I too had a riding accident not so long ago and the pain of broken ribs is very fresh as I see him struggling with to cope with multiple fractures, a punctured lung and a damaged spleen.   Thankfully he is on the mend.  It could have been so much worse.

We had another, albeit mild in comparison, shock whilst here.   We were out for a walk and crowd of young boys joined us as they do.   Without warning two pushed us hard in the back.  We could have fallen.   They ran off when we shouted but it reminded me of the boys in Sudan where it would never occur to me that I might be at risk from them.   Everywhere I have been in Sudan I have been greeted so warmly.  How sad that children in Pakistan feel strangers are a threat - may be even to be wary of, as I am now of them?  We all need to strive to make the world a more welcoming place for children in the coming year.