Blog

Waiting for the rains to come…

During this time of year in Darfur, the air is tense with anticipation. The desert is devoid of all plants, shrubs and other greenery. Families plant what seed they have leftover from the previous year – if any. Many families have to eat the seeds to get through the year. Now they wait for the rains to come – hopefully July. Whilst rain will bring fresh hope for a successful and bountiful harvest there is the threat that too much rain may come and wash away the seeds and even their homes and livestock – flooding is a real threat.  When houses are made of straw they stand little chance of survival when the rain is torrential as happened last year. It is during this time that our water pumps are vital to the people in Darfur, despite the hot dry summer they still have access to fresh clean water from below ground. In the awful event of flooding – our water pumps are more important than ever – despite water being everywhere, floodwaters will be contaminated and unsafe to drink Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

A future full of hope for Murra and her family!

Murra is a mother to 9 children. In 2017 she was chosen by her village to receive support through the Kids for Kids projects. She received 5 goats as part of the goat loan programme, a donkey to help transport water and till the land and also 2 blankets and mosquito nets to protect her children from cold nights and insect-borne diseases. This is just part of the package that Kids for Kids provides to many families in need.  People are so poor they cannot afford even basic essentials.  Kids for Kids makes sure individual families have proper farm tools, an essential when people eat what they grow.   But it doesn’t stop there.   Kids for Kids helps the whole community long term by providing both health care for the people and veterinary care for the animals.   Water is key, and wherever possible Kids for Kids funds handpumps and other water projects. Four years after Kids for Kids adopted her village, Murra’s goat herd has grown to 23 animals. Her children are growing up healthy and strong because of the Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Challenge Yourself & Change Lives with Challenge20!

For our 20th year, why not challenge yourself by taking on a CHALLENGE20 and help change the lives of children!  We’ve already been DANCING FOR 20 HOURS, we now have plans for TEA FOR 20 and, as it gets warmer, we’ll be PADDLE-BOARDING FOR 20 MILES later in the year! Now it’s your turn to join us and choose your own Challenge20 to make a difference to the dire situation in Darfur! At this time of year there is still grass in many areas of Darfur, and normally we would expect people to be able to give their children three, albeit simple, meals before the heat of summer. Summer months are always known as the “hungry” months. Sadly this year, for months now, many families have been surviving on just one scant meal. To make things worse, conflict has again erupted in the region. Fuel continues to be in short supply, and bread queues are long every day, with loaves halved in size and rationed. These children and families need your help now! Take on a Challenge, raise much-needed funds and Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Healing the Desert with Trees!

Darfur is in the Sahel region of Africa which is particularly vulnerable to climate change and according to the UN, the temperature in this region is expected to rise by between 3⁰C and 5⁰C. These warmer temperatures lead to a degradation of the land and an increase in desertification resulting in the desert encroaching into agricultural land. Climate change also impacts the length and timings of seasons, therefore, having a negative effect on crop growth, leading to food insecurity in the area. The people here bear the brunt of the whole planet’s carbon emissions. However, a big part of Kids for Kids’ range of sustainable projects that improve the lives of children in Darfur, Sudan, is our climate change project. One of the easiest and simplest ways to prevent desertification and land degradation is to stabilise the soil. Planting trees and plants increases the soil moisture in the area, stabilises the soil.  It has also been scientifically proven that planting trees helps to form a microclimate in the immediate vicinity of the trees by reducing the air temperature. Lowering the Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Midwives fight Covid-19 in Darfur, Sudan

The situation in Sudan is still desperate. Inflation is still soaring and is now at an all-time high of over 350%. Life is hard for the people in Darfur, as food prices continue to soar so does the level of hunger – our help has never been needed more. To add to this, Covid-19 is still ravaging the country. Village Midwives and First-Aid workers that have been trained thanks to you, our loyal and generous donors, are on the frontline helping to tackle the virus and the challenges it brings to each community. Kids for Kids Project Officer Hassan Mehisi says ‘The situation in many villages is very hard and life is difficult. Our Midwives and First-Aid workers play an enormous role in fighting the pandemic, they help villagers tackle the enormous challenges of addressing the health impact of Covid-19’. Our Midwives and First-Aid workers are delivering babies and providing support despite the threat of Covid-19 – helping to provide advice and educate new mothers and their families on how to protect themselves – there is no access to healthcare in villages – Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Children’s Shepherds’ Committees – Kids looking after Kids!

Animal Welfare is very important to Kids for Kids and in every one of our villages, even the children are trained to look after the goats and donkeys! The Children’s Shepherd Committee are taught to look for injury or disease in all of the villages animals, making sure they have the right food to eat and enough water to drink! The committees are made up of both girls and boys and members are chosen by the whole community and they work closely with the Kids for Kids team in Sudan reporting any sick or unwell animals. The children grow up having the knowledge to give their animals the best life and also gain important skills that will help them in their adult life! Isn’t it lovely to think that every Friday morning – the first day of the weekend in Darfur – our Children’s Shepherds’ Committees in every Kids for Kids’ village inspect every animal in the village to see if they are alright.   Children are really observant.  We train them – teaching them the signs to look for.   Hair Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Celebrating 6 new villages for our Birthday Year!

Kids for Kids is celebrating the incredible news that we are adopting 6 new villages in North Darfur, Sudan in our 20th Year. Gawhir, Hillat Anass, Hillat Hashab, Maagila, Tartoura Birket Jaro and Taitel will be part of the Kids for Kids family in which our sustainable projects will change the lives of over 1100 families and 3700 children – giving hope for the future in these most desperate of times. Whilst we aim to adopt new villages every year, the uncertainty due to Covid-19 as well as crippling inflation in Sudan which is now over 350%, the prospect of offering support and then falling short meant that we were facing this year being the first in our 20-year history of not providing help to villages in need. Amongst the villages chosen, the circumstances vary with 3 of the villages’ nearest water supplies being 12km away, meaning a daily 24 km round trip for children and women to collect enough water for family and livestock alike, a trek that will take many hours in the blistering heat of the Sudanese Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

20 Hour Disco Dancing for Darfur!

WOW that was GREAT FUN!! Pretty challenging to dance for 20 hours – but great fun!! We were grooving, we were twirling, we were twisting….we were even moon-walking!! And we have just about recovered..!! Thank you so much to all of you who could join us to celebrate our 20th Birthday at our 20 hour Greatest of All Time (GOAT!) Virtual Disco which started at midday on Saturday 6th March and finished at 8am on Sunday 7th March! It was so lovely to see friends and supporters from all over the World being able to celebrate with us and bring their friends and family too – one of the perks of hosting events online these days! We were even joined by disco dancing Goats at Wookey Farm – who would have thought it! We would like to say an EVEN BIGGER THANK YOU to the lovely girls who helped us organise this event – Miruna, Alice, Maegan, Laila & Rosetta. They each took a DJ slot and dedicated disco classics & current chart-toppers to their very supportive friends and family. Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

20 years of Celebration – Smiles, Laughter and Tears – our 20th Birthday Party

Live Zoom brought together Joanna Lumley OBE, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Julie Etchingham, Timothy West and Dame Rosalind Marsden KCMG – all Patrons of Kids for Kids – supporters from around the world, and our Founder Patricia Parker MBE and Trustee Alastair King-Smith, to celebrate 20 years of helping children the rest of the world has forgotten, on 8th March this year – International Women’s Day. “It’s hard to believe it was 20 years ago when 19 influential ladies joined me in Khartoum to see how we could help the invisible families in Darfur” said Patricia. “That was the birth of Kids for Kids all those years ago.  And we’re not stopping now!” If you missed the celebration, you can still catch up – or re-live it – via the link at the end of this article and, if you would like to make a donation as a birthday present for our 20th Birthday please do consider donating to The Greatest Need to help children in Darfur now when they need us the most. In what can only be described as Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Girls Lift Lockdown Blues to Dance for Darfur

A group of young girls aged 11 and 12 have decided to put their love of dancing to good use and spread joy this lockdown to support us in raising much-needed funds for the children of Darfur. Alice Bodimeade (12), Maegan Tovey (12), Laila Ball (11) and Rosetta Logan (11) are hoping to lift the lockdown blues by helping to organise the Greatest of All Time (GOAT!) Virtual Disco on Saturday 6th March to encourage friends and family to get together online, have fun dancing and support Kids for Kids who have been helping the forgotten children of Darfur in Sudan for the past 20 years. These dance-loving girls understand that in Darfur children of their age and younger desperately need their help right now. Families are living off one scant meal a day and starvation is a very real threat. Flash floods have washed away crops, inflation is over 300% and, with the average annual wage being the equivalent of £12, it is hard to know how they can survive.  The cost of basic essentials has sky-rocketed, there’s very Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago