A Renewed Plea for Help for the People of South Sudan –
Eric Reeves, 11 May 2014 –
Woodturnings purchased at [ https://www.etsy.com/shop/EricReevesWoodturner?ref=ss_profile ] are turned directly into support for children at risk in South Sudan; all proceeds from all sales go to Save the Children, a very active partner in the broader humanitarian response.
Despite the need for massive commitments to avert famine in South Sudan, there is far too little in the pipeline, either as food or in the form of direct financial support. A number of recent accounts suggest just how extreme the humanitarian situation is in South Sudan.
The cease-fire agreement of May 11, 2014 appears to be shattered. More violence means less humanitarian access—and more lives lost to malnutrition, disease, and violence itself. Famine is a very real threat.
And as is always true when famine threatens, children are most at risk—hundreds of thousands face extreme or crisis levels of food insecurity now. If there is no planting this season (typically occurring in April/May), there will be no harvest in the fall. Without an end to the violence and humanitarian support of a sort nowhere in evidence, hundreds of thousands of people will starve to death, children disproportionately. To see what famine looks like, see the grim and painful gallery I’ve assembled at: http://goo.gl/klnbVP.
Save the Children, to which all proceeds from all sales of my woodturnings are directed, also provides psycho-social assistance to children who have been traumatized by violence, displacement, forced recruitment, and lack of food. A great many children have been separated from their families, and Save the Children becomes their family in absentia.
Time is terribly short.