Blog

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

Kids for Kids Celebrates 20 Years!

Something to Celebrate! This year, 2021, marks our 20th anniversary! That’s two decades of transforming the lives of over 550,000 people in 105 villages in one of the most inaccessible areas of the world. Please join our Founder Patricia Parker and Trustees on our Birthday on 8th March 2021 – International Women’s Day – when we are inviting you to join our virtual Birthday Celebratory Evening.  This year of course we cannot yet meet in person so please join our Virtual Party via Zoom at 7.00p.m.   Patricia will bring you up to date with the news from Darfur.  Join our Patrons, Trustees and find out why people have been supporting Kids for Kids, some for all of our 20 years! There will be messages from friends from around the world, including special friends from Sudan, and we will be inviting you to join in too with our Kids for Kids Quiz – testing your knowledge of all you will learn on the evening, from how to tell a goat from a sheep to how many kids you have helped Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Greatest of All Time (GOAT!) Virtual Disco

Big Kids, Little Kids, Cardboard Box! Kids, big & little, young & old, grab your dancing shoes and join us to dance away those lockdown blues! We invite you to celebrate our 20th birthday with our 20-hour online Greatest of All Time (GOAT!) Virtual Disco starting on Sat 6th March!  It’s International Women’s Day too – so bring your sister, Mum, Aunty & Granny along as well! The fun will start online via Zoom at midday on Sat 6th March and finish at 8am on Sun 7th March. So, wherever you are, come & join us at a time that suits you for 1, 2, 5, 10, 15 or even 20 hours of brilliant boogying!! Why not set yourself a target and ask friends & family to sponsor you?? You can set up your fundraising page here! Or invite 20 friends, near and far, and help spread the fun & cheer! There’ll be disco classics, the current chart-toppers, special requests & shout outs! Something for everyone! Request your favourite song, grab your disco lights & glad rags, and show us your Read more

By Claire, ago

20th Birthday – but is it a time to celebrate?

Kids for Kids celebrates 20 years of helping the forgotten children of Darfur on 8th March this year – two decades in which we have transformed the lives of over 550,000 people in 105 villages in one of the most inaccessible places in the world. A journey that started with a young boy’s seven-hour walk for water across the deserts of Darfur, to a handpump miles from his home. Whilst this may seem like a time to celebrate, it is a stark reminder that in Darfur our help is still needed. There are still young children and families with no access to clean, fresh water. The situation in Darfur is still desperate, inflation has skyrocketed to over 250% and is still rising. This has put our projects at risk – the cost of implementing our key projects has jumped massively. The need for water has always been a necessity but since the arrival of covid-19 into Darfur, the only way communities can protect themselves is by washing their hands. This means that families need more water than ever to keep Read more

By Charlotte Allum, ago

Special 20th Birthday Celebration with Joanna Lumley OBE & Special Guests

Celebrate our 20th Birthday with us on Monday 8th March 2021 at 7pm!   Join Joanna Lumley OBE, Julie Etchingham and other special Guests from all over the World for a fun-filled online evening of amazing anecdotes, interesting insights and a celebratory quiz as we look back at the last 20 years of Kids for Kids and look forward to the next 20! We would love you all to join us in celebrating our first 20 years and all that YOU  have helped us achieve to change the lives of hundreds of forgotten children in Darfur. We’re asking for a minimum donation of £10.00 for an Family Ticket – or the equivalent in your local currency. £10 will provide 5 bars of soap to combat Covid-19, £50 will help us give a goat to provide nutritious goat’s milk for children badly suffering from malnutrition in Darfur. Invite 5 friends – give a Goat – and help us save a child’s life! Come and join us online by booking your tickets here! We will be using Zoom which is quick and easy Read more

By Lucy Holloway, ago