Team Zamzam Monthly Report (15 July to August 15, 2024), from the Coordinating Counselor
(translated by Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen)
Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen and Eric Reeves, Co-Chairs
Nancy Reeves, Editor and Funding Advisor
The past month has been one of extraordinary difficulty and deprivation, even by the ghastly standards of Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons. Famine is deepening and more children are starving to death every day. Insecurity remains terrifying as the brutal Rapid Support Forces militia maintains its ruthless siege of El Fasher and prevents all humanitarian organizations from traveling the roads to this part of North Darfur.
The coordinating counselor for Team Zamzam has again assembled an extraordinarily detailed account of humanitarian conditions, the security situation (including particularly important geographic details of relevance for any potential relief convoys), and the vast destruction within the camp caused by heavy seasonal rains. (See also the mid-June to mid-July update.)
Although responding to the needs of girls and women traumatized by extreme sexual violence remains a key priority for our efforts, famine has altered our funding priorities as we try to keep as many people alive as possible until substantial international relief aid arrives. There are no signs that this is imminent, at least for the El Fasher region of North Darfur. The estimate by the Clingedael Institute of malnutrition and its consequences for Sudan retains far too much grim authority:
“…an estimated excess mortality of about 2.5 million people (about 15% of the population in Darfur and Kordofan, which are likely worst affected) [can be expected] by the end of September 2024…” (Clingendael Institute (The Netherlands) predicted in May 2024)
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The coordinating counselor’s update is unusually long, detailed, and revealing as catastrophe accelerates. Many voices of the camp are represented, all urgently pleading for relief help and security—and bewildered that the world has not responded to their desperate needs. Of particular note is the section on food distributions, which I append here as the substance of this update for July 15 – August 15:
Food items distributed by Team Zamzam between July 15 and August 15
As usual, the Zamzam team inspected the humanitarian conditions inside Zamzam camp and the dispersed shelter centers with the aim of distributing food baskets to relieve pain and stress that many families are enduring. After evaluation carried out on most segments of the camp, a total 1123 vulnerable families were targeted for distribution which comprised sugar, flour, and red lentils.
[This brings to 2,000 families assisted over the past two months—ER]
Among the beneficiaries of the distribution:
120 widows
63 orphan children
12 families with physically disabled family members
13 families with paralyzed children
72 families with children suffering from acute malnutrition
Quantity of food distributed
25 large bags of sugar, each bag containing 50 kg
60 bags of flour, each containing 25 kg
44 bags of red lentils, each containing 25 kg
The distributions were distributed equally among each family: 2 kilos of flour; 1 kilo of sugar; and half a kilo of lentils.
Targeted shelter centers:
Al-Salam girls School 18: 377 families
Al-Zamzam Secondary Boys School: 181 families
Al-Basharia School Shelter Center: 152 families
Zamzam Shelter Center, Sector (A): 129 families
Zamzam Shelter Center, Sector (C): 283 families
Testimonies of beneficiaries.
In the light of such difficult circumstances and people living on the verge of severe famine, many displaced people have benefited from the distribution of food supplies; among these displaced people are many vulnerable families, widowed women, the elderly, and people with special needs.
Also, many of them benefited from the awareness and guidance sessions that provided to them by the counselors of Team Zamzam and its volunteers for girls who have been subjected to sexual violence, abuse, and humiliation during the extreme violence of war.
Mrs Nour Al-Huda, 48 years old, is one of the displaced people originally displaced from the Hashaba area and she is now displaced again from Abuja camp to Zamzam camp. She is the mother of four children, two girls and two boys; her husband disappeared 12 years ago during a Janjaweed attack on their village.
Nour Al-Huda said:
“We were forced to deal with the stress caused us deliberately by the Janjaweed militia. The RSF militia terrorised us and killed many of our people. All the Janjaweed are doing is stealing, looting, threatening, displacing thousands, and raping most of the women and their daughters.”
Mrs. Nour Al-Huda has been displaced more than five times to different places; her life has been completely destroyed, and what money she had was stolen. She is deeply sad and stressed.
She said:
“We are now very afraid, even within Zamzam camp: the RSF and Janjaweed are threatening to enter the displaced shelter centers. But God will protect us.”
After receiving her food package, Nour Al-Huda screamed with happiness and joy and then ululated and said, “today you sisters of Team Zamzam have miraculously appeared like angels from nowhere to surprise us. Thank you for saving our lives, thank you for saving our children from hunger, thank you and god bless you and bless your families.”
For her part, Mrs. Nahid Ismail said:
“Today was the happiest today for my family and many other families who are suffering too much. This food aid you provided us will last us at least for one good week and finally we will recover for the week; today our meal has become complete with the grace of god.”
She continued, saying: “We need the immediate intervention of organizations, philanthropists, and all young people outside and inside the country. We have been struck by a wave of hunger, disease, and severe suffering in the displacement camps, especially children, women, the elderly, and people with special needs. Here conditions are very difficult and unstable.”
********* HOW TO HELP **********
NB: It is now possible to make a tax-deductible contribution to our project, using a portal on the website of a 501/c/3 organization operating in Sudan. Operation Broken Silence, working primarily on health and education issues in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, has created a special site for tax-deductible contributions to our project, and we hope this makes contributing to the health and well-being of the people of Zamzam easier for donors.
Those wishing to assist in funding the work of Team Zamzam may also send a check directly to Eric (Eric Reeves, 31 Franklin St., Northampton, MA 01060).
OR
Purchase one of his woodturnings: https://www.ericreeves-woodturner.com/collections/all
