DEC EMERGENCY: DARFUR AND CHAD CRISIS APPEAL

Save the Children is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a group of the UK's leading international aid charities who have agreed that the suffering in Darfur has reached intolerable levels and must not continue. We've joined together to take action, and with your support we'll be able to raise the £10 million we need to prevent thousands of children dying.

What is the crisis?

The ongoing violence in Darfur means approximately 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes, leaving everything they own behind. Many have nowhere to go and don't know where their next food or water is coming from. As always it is the children who are suffering the most.

Why do we need to act now?

The conflict in Darfur has intensified over the past six months, which has resulted in more and more families fleeing for their lives, abandoning their homes and villages and seeking safety in camps on both sides of the border. Two million people in Darfur are now displaced internally. Thousands more have crossed the border and are now seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad and Central African Republic.

Since October 2005, political unrest between the Chadian government and opposition groups has escalated into an internal armed conflict. Chad was already hosting some 232,000 refugees from Darfur. Now it has 147,000 of its own people displaced due to fighting inside Chad.

With 4.5 million people affected by the escalating conflict, the looming rains are increasing the risk of deadly conditions like diarrhoea and malaria, especially for children, pregnant mothers and older people. Malnutrition levels are already reaching emergency levels in parts of Darfur. Aid agencies are appealing for vital help now to respond to the rapidly growing crisis and in a bid to bolster life-saving food and medicine stocks before the downpours hit any time within the next 4 weeks

The gathering storms will also make the delivery of aid a much more difficult task, with vehicle tracks disappearing and swollen rivers becoming all but impossible to cross - meaning help needs to arrive as soon as possible

What is Save the Children doing?

Save the Children US is the largest NGO working in West Darfur reaching around 500,000 people every month by providing water and sanitation, education, health care and child protection. We provide urgently-needed food aid, as well as vital vaccinations against the diseases that spread so quickly in these conditions.

Our work includes:

• Running 10 clinics, four emergency obstetric clinics (maternity)
• We have built 19 schools and refurbished 19 more
• Running 27 children's centres
• Water and sanitation - drilling wells, providing hand pumps
• General food distribution - 55,000 metric tons per annum

We continue to run our camps at close to breaking point, despite violence, heightened risks to our staff, and increasing difficulty in providing help to all those who need it. Despite our efforts, every day, over 70 children under the age of 5 are still dying across Darfur. The situation may be complicated, but the issue is simple. If we weren't there, even more children would die.

What will we do with the additional income?

Money is needed to continue providing vital food aid, as well as life-saving vaccinations.

Save the Children will also use its share of the money to expand emergency education and child protection projects in Darfur. Education is absolutely critical for children that have been forced to flee their homes by conflict. Education is often not a priority for donors in emergencies and our education programme is significantly underfunded. We would provide schools, teaching materials and help support teachers in camps right across West Darfur.

In addition, Save the Children will aim to open new emergency education and emergency protection programmes in Central African Republic and Chad.

What could your money buy?

• · £10 could vaccinate 10 children against measles
• · £25 could help buy plastic sheeting to protect displaced families for the impending rains
• · £30 will help us provide a child with Plumpy'nut® for three months. It's just 19p a packet and gives starving children all the nutrients and calories they'll need to survive.
• · £66 could feed a family of five for three months
• · £200 could buy a tap stand, able to provide 1,500 people with water everyday

To make a donation

• · Donate directly to one of our shops
• · Donate directly to the DEC appeal by calling 0870 60 60 900, visiting www.dec.org.uk or at any high street bank or post office
• · Donate towards Save the Children's work in the area by calling 0800 148 148 or visiting www.savethechildren.org.uk/darfur