(Eric) It has been a year of terror, famine, increasing violence around the nearby city of El Fasher and in Zamzam camp itself—and yet the remarkable team of women who are the core of our project continue to work in resilient and compassionate fashion. At present insecurity in the region has cut off humanitarian access to Zamzam, so the continuation of work of Team Zamzam becomes all the more important. Presently there are more than 1 million displaced persons in Zamzam and its environs.
[This Annual Report concludes with an explanation of how to contribute to the efforts of Team Zamzam to battle famine and save the lives of the most vulnerable. Presently more than four children are starving to death every day (see graphic below). The number may in fact be much greater.]
A brief summary of this work appears immediately below, which is then organized in a spreadsheet and discussed in further narrative commentary:
More photos from Zamzam may be found at a continually expanding “album.”
Distributing very substantial quantities of food and non-food items—over 140,000 pounds (64,000 kilograms) of pasta, red lentils, sugar, cooking oil, and rice;
Caring for the fistula patients whose surgery our team provided; prior to the indiscriminate attacks on El Fasher health facilities by the Rapid Support Forces, almost 90 successful, life-changing surgeries had been provided since 2000 (surgeries cost on average $400 in El Fasher). Sadly, given present insecurity, only18 surgeries have been provided this year; the waiting list for such surgery now exceeds 200 girls and women;
Arranging for the rehabilitation of wells, critical work in this water-poor camp and funded by Team Zamzam; each well rehabilitation requires a hydraulic engineer, parts, and substantial labor. The cost on average is $3,500/well; each will provide clean water for hundreds of camp residents, sparing them arduous waits in long lines at the few working wells; altogether eight wells have been rehabilitated, three this year;
Providing leadership, guidance in setting camp priorities, and communication with the world outside Darfur (the monthly reports from the coordinating counselor of Team Zamzam are superbly translated by Gaffar in timely fashion). We know as much as we do about the situation in Zamzam—now the site of a UN-declared famine—because of the critical information Team Zamzam has provided over the past four and a half years;
And the original mission of Team Zamzam continues—providing psychosocial counseling to girls and women traumatized by sexual violence. Over the past 20+ years, tens of thousands of girls and women have been raped, gang-raped, or subject to other brutal sexual violence in Darfur. The consequences of these traumatic events are numerous: physical pain that is too often excruciating, deep shame, depression (including suicide), and what seems like incomprehensible ostracization by family and society. Many girls are too young to comprehend what has happened to them.
For this vast population, previously without remotely sufficient resources, the creation of Team Zamzam has been an extraordinary blessing. This year alone some 300 girls and women benefited from compassionate and deeply knowledgeable individual counseling by the women of Team Zamzam. Hundreds more were assisted by some 150 group counseling sessions. Altogether, over the life of the project, thousands of girls and women have been assisted, many profoundly, indeed some in life-saving ways. Some of their testimonials—of which we have scores—may be found here.
All of this work has been made possible by the generous contributors to Team Zamzam, and we are all deeply grateful. While it’s not possible for me to write individually to all who have assisted, I do wish to express my deepest gratitude—and that of Team Zamzam in North Darfur and the terrifyingly large population they are attempting to help.
Food is distributed throughout the month to those most in need.
FAMINE
By far the best overview of the famine, of which Team Zamzam has been warning for the past three years, was provided earlier this month by Reuters in a special report, to which I contributed a few words. Overshadowed by Gaza, Ukraine, and the painful political theater of the United States, the famine threat grew relentlessly. And yet it was only on August 2, 2024 that the UN officially declared famine—in Zamzam. I recently attempted to summarize what we have known for over a year and a half, and yet was heeded by only a very few (including Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières, which has maintained some operations in Zamzam even when massive civil conflict and violence broke out in Sudan on April 15, 2023).
While we’ve been able to feed only a small fraction of Zamzam’s vast population—evidence now strongly suggests that well over 1 million people reside in Zamzam or its immediate environs—Team Zamzam distributed an astonishing 141,000 pounds of food (64,000 kilograms). This food went to the neediest camp residents: children, especially malnourished orphans, lactating mothers, the very elderly, the infirm and ill.
The food was purchased from the growing number of food traders around Zamzam and El Fasher, who charge painfully exorbitant prices. But the highly knowledgeable Team Zamzam has consistently made purchases in the most efficient and low-cost fashion. While it is difficult to quantify with real precision the number of people who benefited from the food distributions organized by Team Zamzam, this population exceeded 45,000.
All quantified data concerning food, wells rehabilitated, fistula surgeries, non-food items distributed, and psychosocial counseling meetings appear in the spreadsheet below.
Since the monthly calendar does not correspond particularly well with the timing of food distributions, certain data are spread over two months without trying to distinguish what occurred in each of the two months.]
BUDGET:
Monthly salary total for 18 counselors and 2 male co-workers (providing assistance with distributions/transportation/unarmed security as needed) has been increased to $200/month in light of exploding prices for food and other basic goods, even as Gaffar transfers the funds to El Fasher in hard currency (euros). Given the amount of work done by Team Zamzam, and their need to feed and provide for their own families, these still modest salaries (roughly $7.00/day) are minimally appropriate.
In order to preserve the formatting of budget numbers, they are presented here as a screenshot (the overall budget is more than double that of 2023—and with continued support from our generous donors, we hope to increase our capacity in 2025):
ACTIVITIES
It would be too difficult to incorporate into the annual spreadsheet a summary of activities by Team Zamzam, especially their countless assessment missions throughout the camp as well as their participation in meetings of camp leaders, civil society representatives, and many other events critical to Zamzam in maintaining morale, order, and at least a modicum of hope. The voices of Team Zamzam now have a prominent place in all decision-making and planning for the camp. The Team in the past has also accompanied many of those with medical issues to El Fasher, although insecurity is far too great at present.
Team Zamzam has also attracted a number of volunteers, both girls and women, from within the camp and has inspired several comparable if much smaller efforts.
Each Monthly Update from the coordinating counselor of Team Zamzam includes a summary of these efforts. Below are links to Monthly Updates for 2024. It should be noted that the format for these updates changes as Zamzam moves more deeply into famine. It should also be noted that as funds permit, Team Zamzam distributes a number of non-food items (NFI). These include soap, sanitary supplies for girls and women, medicines when available for the most desperately ill or those suffering intolerable pain, and materials that enable shelters to work to control sanitation.
[Timing of Updates: communication, translation, and publication dates are not precisely for the month indicated. The coordinating counselor must first find the time to put together her extraordinarily informative reports; Gaffar must then translate the reports as they come in, juggling a number of responsibilities to his family and to the Darfuri diaspora; and I must find the time to edit Gaffar’s translations, then post on my website [ https://sudanreeves.org/ ]. On a number of occasions, the time period reflected in what finally appears covers portions of two months; the earlier month is the one linked here.
The spreadsheet above provides extensive data but still only partially represents Team Zamzam’s work in 2024 through mid-December.
Monthly Updates for 2024:
December 2024
[The December monthly update, with a terminus of December 10, is incorporated in this Annual Report, if in truncated form. The recent shelling of Zamzam by the Rapid Support Forces began on December 1 and continues through this writing. What has been included in place of a regular update are the activities and distributions by Team Zamzam.
The ongoing shelling is already threatening Internet access and communications; this will continue for the foreseeable future. Hundreds have been killed or wounded, and many thousands have fled the camp since it came under RSF attack, conspicuously a crime against humanity, if not genocide—directed against people who have already endured genocidal assault over the past twenty years.]
SUMMARY CONCLUSION
As much as Team Zamzam has done to improve conditions in Zamzam and assist those most badly in need, the realities of continuing famine cannot be denied. This graphic from the Reuters dispatch referenced earlier gives a grim sense of how famine-related mortality is growing, indeed accelerating:
Team Zamzam remains committed to reducing human suffering and death in the camp, but there is only so much they can do: the international community must bring itself to ensure safe passage to Zamzam and the many other places where famine has hit (we know of only a few because of the absence of data and the means of data collection). And as I said to Reuters (December 5) in their superb analysis of famine in Zamzam:
The IPC’s [Food Security Phase Classification] finding of famine in Zamzam in August came late, said Eric Reeves, who heads Team Zamzam, a charity providing aid at the camp. And given the difficulty of consistently getting aid in, the IPC warning “has made absolutely no difference to the lives of the people of Zamzam.”
A scholar who has studied Sudan for 26 years, Reeves said the Sudan hunger crisis is greater than any the world has seen in decades. “The dying from starvation will not stop until there is full humanitarian access, and even then it will be difficult to forestall the deaths of many hundreds of thousands,” he said.
“Once underway, true famine is extremely difficult to bring to an end.”
*********************************
To continue their efforts to alleviate suffering and save lives, and to address the challenges of famine, disease, and sexual violence, Team Zamzam needs your continuing help. Here’s how to provide it:
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
All proceeds from all woodturning sales go directly to sustaining our work in Zamzam.