SUDAN CRISIS

Your ALWS Emergency Action

UPDATE 4: Friday 26 May

Photo: LWF South Sudan

There is a high risk that more than 60,000 returnees and refugees will arrive in South Sudan over the next 6 months.

Through ALWS, you have a special focus on those who are most vulnerable.

When people are forced from their homes to flee to safety, families prioritise their children. That’s why up to 60% of refugees are children.

The LWF team you support in South Sudan is conducting community engagement activities and providing psychosocial support to vulnerable children as they cross the border from Sudan.

You can see the needs of children in this small sample from 30 April:

• 15 children welcomed and assessed
• 6 of these children required medical attention
• 7 children, regarded as missing, were referred to UNHCR for family tracing
• 1 child, separated from parents, was supported with Non-Food Items

The LWF team report there are several challenges in ensuring children are adequately protected and cared for in this crisis:

1. Very limited number of Protection Case Workers, both at the border Reception Centre and the Transit Centre in Renk.
2. Limited awareness amongst the population of child protection and other protection issues, including for people with disability.
3. Limited access to sanitary and reproductive health information, especially among the adolescents within the settlement and the immediate host communities.
4. Limited access to essentials such as sanitary pads, underwear, and soap.
5. Need for awareness on the risks of child trafficking and other protection risk associated with migration of populations.
6. Lack of protection pathways and structures within the refugee and host communities.

Photo: LWF South Sudan

Once emergency needs are met, like the welcome meal you see being distributed in the photo, it is vital to care for children’s emotional and psychological needs in this crisis setting.

Therefore, using our ALWS commitment of $50,000 to South Sudan for emergency response, your LWF team plans to:

1. Provide Psychosocial support, including play activities with children, training, group counselling activities.
2. Procure and distribute hygiene kits (washing soap, sanitary pads, bath soap, jelly)
3. Procure and distribute play and learning materials for children in Child-Friendly Spaces and Early Childhood Development Centres
4. Support awareness raising on child protection, including the rights for children living with disability, using branded posters & education materials, translated into Arabic
5. Hire, train and incentivise casual labour for case identification & referral pathways
6. Provide sanitary materials for survivors of Gender-Based Violence and to girls with protection concerns
7. Provide material support, and cash where possible, to extremely vulnerable individuals identified on arrival.

The aim is to support at least 1,000 children with:

• Learning Materials:
• picture books
• exercise books
• readers
• Hygiene Kits:
• laundry soap
• bath soap
• sanitary pads
• other hygiene essentials
• Child Protection and Psychosocial support

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Thank you for helping ALWS provide this immediate crisis support.

UPDATE 3: Tuesday 23 May

Photo: ColinDelfosse 

Families flee to the borders on Sudan any way they can. The LWF team here on the Chad border report the challenges of arid land with temperatures up to 45 degrees. 

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FAMILIES FLEE CRISIS 

The crisis began on April 15th, 2023, when fighting broke out in Khartoum between the two main factions in Sudan: 

• Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the ruling militia regime, currently acting as the official Army of the country  
• Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rival paramilitary force.  

One month later, an estimated 900 civilians have been killed and a further 4,000+ injured. 

DISPLACEMENT 

As a result of the war 936,000 people have been newly displaced including 736,200 people displaced internally and 200,000 who have crossed into neighbouring countries.  

Women and children represent 75 per cent of those affected by this conflict. An estimated 450,000 children have fled their homes. 

SOUTH SUDAN 

• 59,229 (53% female, 47% male) individuals have crossed into South Sudan 

• 94% these are South Sudanese returnees 

• UNHCR estimates, between 125,000 and 180,000 South Sudanese and 45,000 Sudanese are expected to arrive in the next three months 

• Entry points include: 
  • Upper Nile: Renk, Fashoda, Manyo, Panyikrang 
  • Northern Bahr el Ghazal: Aweil East and North 
  • Unity: Pariang, Rubkona 
  • Western Bahr el Ghazal: Raja 

• Your ALWS action is planned to focus in Renk, where people are arriving by boat, coming down the Nile: 
  • WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) 
  • Child Protection 
  • Shelter 
  • Food Security 
  • Non-Food Items 
  • Livelihoods 
  • Education 
  • Sical Cohesion 

ETHIOPIA  

• More than 20,400 people have crossed Ethiopia’s Metema border  
• 5,300 people have crossed in Almahal, Benishangul-Gumuz Region 
• Most of these are Ethiopian returnees 
• Your ALWS action includes: 
• Protection 
• WASH 
• Food Security 
• Emergency shelter 
• Non-Food Items 

CHAD 

• total number of refugee arrivals has exceeded 50,000 (18,500male, 31,500 female)  
• UNHCR projects a total of 100,000 Sudanese refugees by the end of May 

Photo: ColinDelfosse 

You can see from this photo on the Chad border with Sudan that a large of proportion of the refugees being cared for by LWF teams are women and children. 

YOUR ALWS ACTION 

Your ALWS action is focused in Ethiopia and South Sudan, where you already support large LWF (Lutheran World Federation) programs through ALWS. 

LWF is also working in Chad, as part of the worldwide churches response through ACT Alliance. Church agencies providing care include: 

• Lutheran World Federation 
• Norwegian Church Aid 

• Christian Aid 
• Presbyterian Relief and Development Agency 
• Ethiopian Orthodox Church 
• Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus (the Lutheran Church in Ethiopia, with 8.3 million members in 8,500 congregations and 4,000 preaching stations) 

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SUDAN CRISIS

Your ALWS Emergency Action

UPDATE 2: Tuesday 9 May

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UPDATE FROM ETHIOPIA 

The front-line LWF team you support in Ethiopia reports: 

• as of 3 May, 11,000 people from Sudan crossed into Ethiopia, via town of Medema in West Gondar Zone of Amhara Region 

• 19% of arrivals are children 

• front-line partners are providing reception, emergency health services, drinking water, sleeping mats, high energy biscuits, transportation 

• Amhara regional authorities anticipate further influxes in the tens of thousands 

• anticipated arrival points: Metema, Gendawuha, Kurmuk, Assossa Zone 

• three sites near Medema have been identified for reception and shelter 

• primary needs include food, drinking water, latrines, emergency shelter, health and protection services 

• LWF has operations in several IDP sites in Amhara as well as Gambella, one of the possible entry points of Sudanese refugees and returnees into Ethiopia 

ALWS has committed $50,000 to the emergency response in Ethiopia, 

and a further $50,000 for the response in South Sudan. 

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EMERGENCY ACTION ALLIANCE 

Your ALWS action for Sudan now features on the website of Australia’s Emergency Action Alliance, alongside UNHCR and Plan. 

This EAA exposure gives the broader Australian public a chance to respond through ALWS, and is a ‘one stop shop’ for media like the ABC and SBS. 

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ACTION 

ALWS welcomes the Australian Government recognising the seriousness of the situation in Sudan, and acting quickly and decisively to provide an initial $6 million worth of Australian support. 

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SUDAN CRISIS

Your ALWS Emergency Action

UPDATE 1: Wednesday 3 May

Why your help is needed

As Sudan moves toward civilian rule, conflict has broken out between warring parties. 500 people have been killed. Thousands injured. 5 million people are displaced.

Countries like UK, US and Russia are evacuating their citizens. Meanwhile, the UN is ‘bracing’ for 800,000 people to cross the borders as refugees.

ALWS will commit $100,000 of aid in-faith from our Emergency Fund.

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Your planned ALWS action

In an emergency like this, conditions can change quickly. Our ALWS experience shows the kind of help most likely to be needed may include:

ACTION 1: Household Essentials & Shelter

• Identify and validate beneficiary families
• Supply household essentials through distribution / cash / vouchers
• Distribute basic Shelter Kits

ACTION 2: Food Assistance and Livelihoods

• Kick-start monthly food distributions to families
• Monitor impact on families’ health

ACTION 3: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

• Supply WASH Kits (soap, cresol disinfectant and chlorine)
• Construct emergency latrines (60% women, 40% men)
• Install handwashing facilities
• Construct showers
• Install waste bins
• Construct and repair boreholes
• Distribute water treatment products
• Install water treatment and storage site
• Provide cleaning materials: local brooms, shovels, rakes, buckets, wheelbarrows

If you wish to join this emergency response for families forced to flee Sudan, you are welcome to DONATE NOW. 

Frontline Crisis Update

ALWS is in close contact with our LWF partners in the countries bordering Sudan:

– South Sudan, to the south

– Ethiopia, to the east

– Chad, to the west

Through ALWS, you already support life-changing action in South Sudan and Ethiopia.

ALWS has previously supported work in Chad, helping people fleeing Darfur in Sudan.

Mika Jokivuori, heads your LWF (Lutheran World Federation) team in South Sudan.

Mika reports:

• 45,000 Sudan refugees
• 120,000 South Sudanese returning
• 80% are women and children
• large impact on current operations in Maban and Jamjang in the north

Meanwhile, the LWF team in Chad report:

• more than 20,000 people have already crossed the border seeking refuge
• several thousand more blocked by the Sudanese Army in the villages of Birceliba, Selea and Simeme.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Abdou Dieng, is warning:

“It has been more than two weeks of devastating fighting in Sudan,

a conflict that is turning Sudan humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe. The regional spill-over effect of the crisis is a serious concern.”

News reports 3 May suggest warring parties have agreed ‘in principle’ to a 7 day truce, though the situation remains fluid and fragile.

How you can help

The emergency ALWS response of $100,000 is on top of the projects we have budgeted to support this year. Therefore:

• If you would like to support the ALWS 3 Step Action Plan for people fleeing Sudan, you are welcome to donate here. (Donations $2 and over are tax-deductible.)
• If prayer is one of the ways you care for people, please know this support for the front-line LWF teams will be very much appreciated. Please pray for the truce too.
• If you would like further information, ALWS will update you via email and this website. Or feel free to call ALWS on 1300 763 407

Your donation is directed where you are needed most urgently to help people hurt by the crisis in Sudan, in consultation with ALWS on-ground partner LWF (Lutheran World Federation) in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Chad.

How your donation is used wisely

[✓] You help with practical care

Your donation will be used to support families fleeing the current violence in Sudan. Our ALWS in-faith commitment is $100,000. Should ALWS receive income beyond what is needed in these projects, any extra will be used to support critical work in other ALWS-supported projects. Information in this communication is based on data correct at time of writing and may change. Funds and other resources designated for the purpose of aid and development will be used only for those purposes and will not be used to promote a particular religious adherence or to support a political party, or to promote a candidate or organisation affiliated to a particular party, or to support welfare activities as defined by DFAT. For more information, call: 1300 763 407

[✓] Being careful with your care

 In 2022, ALWS ‘overheads’ (fundraising and administration costs as defined by ACFID Code of Conduct) were 15.4%. The 5 year average is 15.4%. A copy of the most current ALWS Annual Report can be viewed at alws.org.au or requested: 1300 763 407.

[✓]  Your privacy is important to us

ALWS collects personal information about you in order to process your gift. A copy of the ALWS Privacy Policy is available at alws.org.au. If you don’t wish to receive further news from ALWS, simply call 1300 763 407 or write to us at alws@alws.org.au.

Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) is The Overseas Aid & Development Agency of the Lutheran Church of Australia – ABN 36 660 551 871