Patricia Parker OBE, founder of Kids for Kids, has been named one of just five winners of the Daily Mail Inspirational Women Awards 2026, in association with Marks & Spencer, in recognition of her extraordinary dedication to children and families living in the heart of Darfur, Sudan, one of the world’s most remote, neglected and dangerous regions in the world.
At a special Reception hosted by HRH The Princess Royal at St James’s Palace on Wednesday 3 June, Patricia received a crystal trophy and a £500 M&S gift voucher to honour the life-changing work she has led for almost 25 years.
Patricia, who works from her home in Dorking Surrey, founded Kids for Kids in 2001 after travelling to Darfur and meeting a nine-year-old boy. Every day, Ibrahim walked seven hours to collect water for his family, carrying a heavy jerrycan home across the desert. Then he had the journey back.
“Ibrahim changed my life,” says Patricia. “When I saw what children in Darfur were enduring just to survive, I knew I could not walk away. There is water underground in Darfur if only you can afford to dig for it.”
What began with one child has grown into a charity that has now helped more than 600,000 people across 110 remote villages in Darfur.
Darfur has endured conflict for more than 20 years. Despite insecurity, violence, isolation and immense logistical challenges, the charity has continued to deliver real, measurable and sustainable help to families who are too often forgotten by the world. “Keeping detailed records has meant we have been able to prove to the regime in Sudan exactly what we have been providing. I have just written a short book looking back at the 25 years of Kids for Kids and it has really brought home to me the extraordinary difference simple but appropriate help can make to people’s lives.”
Today, the need is more desperate than ever.
As Sudan enters its fourth year of devastating violence, children are starving. Families have fled their homes. Thousands of children have been orphaned and are in urgent need of care, food and safety. Villages are cut off from aid. Kids for Kids is one of the very few organisations still able to reach people.
Working deep inside rural Darfur, far from major cities, media attention and international infrastructure, Kids for Kids has built trusted relationships within communities in remote villages over decades.
Working directly with local people has meant that Kids for Kids has been able to respond rapidly during the current crisis. Today the charity is delivering emergency food, medicine, mosquito nets, soap and seeds for planting to families facing starvation and displacement.
“Our work is not simply about aid that arrives and disappears,” Patricia explains. “It is about helping families survive today while giving them the tools, dignity and hope to build a better future for their children.”
Receiving this national award during such a devastating time for Sudan carries particular significance for Patricia.
“To receive this honour for Kids for Kids whilst Sudan is suffering so profoundly means the world,” she says. “But above all, I hope it shines a light on the immense suffering children in Darfur are facing right now and on the hope that together, we can still make a difference.”
As Kids for Kids marks its 25th anniversary this year, the charity continues its emergency appeal for Kids Kitchen Kits, Seeds, Medicine, Soap and Goats to help families survive the ongoing crisis.
