SCIAF Christmas Appeal Shining a Light in Sudan

Click here to make a donation to the SCIAF Christmas Appeal or call 0141 354 5555.

If you would like to write a message or prayer of support to the people of southern Sudan, call 0141 354 5555 or send your message by email to supporterservices@sciaf.org.uk. You can also ask for a candle to be posted out to you or a friend or family member.

For more than 20 years Sudan’s people lived in the grip of a violent civil war which left 1.5 million dead and caused four million people to flee their homes. Since 2005 there has been a fragile peace between the north and the south but the road to recovery will be long and problematic.

SCIAF has launched a special appeal urging the people of Scotland to help ‘shine a light in the darkness’ this Christmas. During the festive season, SCIAF is asking its supporters to make donations and write messages and prayers of hope on candle-shaped cards which will be sent directly to southern Sudan where they will be read out on a Sudanese radio station.

This is a chance to show the people of Sudan that they need not feel alone and that the best wishes of the Scottish people are with them as they try to rebuild their lives. Donations to the appeal will help SCIAF and its local partners to continue their life-changing work in the country.

Last Christmas, SCIAF supporters sent messages of peace to northern Uganda. These words of support and solidarity were read out on a Ugandan radio station where they helped give the people of Uganda faith in their struggle for lasting peace.

This year, SCIAF is asking you to remember our brothers and sisters in Sudan who are struggling to rebuild their lives after decades of fighting. In January 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the Sudanese Government in the north and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in the newly autonomous region of southern Sudan.

Healing a nation which has been torn apart by war is no easy task and the government of southern Sudan faces huge challenges. Many people are desperately poor and much of the country’s infrastructure has been completely destroyed. Sudan still bears the scars of recent fighting with landmines which continue to kill and maim still present on roadsides and farmland. Entire generations have lived most of their lives in a state of war. Hundreds of thousands of men and women born during the conflict have missed out on an education, and a lack of facilities means that even today many children do not go to school.

In January this year, SCIAF opened its first overseas office in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan. Hand-in-hand with its local partners SCIAF is working to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and help the people of Sudan to rebuild what has been destroyed.

Alice Ligunya, Programme Manager at SCIAF’s Juba office said:

“Sudan needs our help. Sudanese people are optimistic but they need support from their brothers and sisters in Scotland to rebuild their lives after so many years of war.”

SCIAF is working closely with marginalised groups, including women, children and people with disabilities, to ensure that everyone is included in the reconstruction of their country. Years of fighting have left thousands of children homeless and without access to a proper education or training. Many of them lost their parents during the war and have younger brothers and sisters to feed and look after.

SCIAF works alongside the St Martin de Porres Brothers, in Juba, to provide homeless young men aged between 15 and 30 with vocational training in practical, employable skills. Mechanics, joiners and welders are desperately needed across southern Sudan to help rebuild the shattered infrastructure. Through the training provided by the brothers of St Martin de Porress, these young people are not only regaining their dignity and the skills they need to earn a living – they are contributing to the redevelopment of their country.

The brothers are building a new workshop and vocational training centre in the city which will support street children, ex child soldiers, orphans and children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school.

Peter Ladu is 15. He and his family fled to Juba during the war. His father worked as a nurse at the local hospital but was killed during the conflict leaving his mother with eight children to feed. Thanks to SCIAF and the St Martin de Porress Brothers, Peter is about to start a course in mechanics and car repair at the new centre. He hopes to use his skills to earn a living so that he can support his mother and younger brothers and sisters.

He said: “I am looking forward to when courses start at the vocational training centre. I want to be a mechanic and learn vehicle repair, as well as welding.”

SCIAF’s partner the Loka Women’s Association is helping women whose lives have been devastated by the war to gain the skills and confidence they need to help participate in the rebuilding of their communities.

Like many thousands of people across Sudan, the women of Loka missed out on education during the war. The region has a female literacy rate below 5% - one of the lowest in the world. Loka Women’s Association runs literacy and maths classes for women who did not get the chance to go to school. They also teach new farming techniques so that women can grow enough to feed their families and provide loans and training in skills like tailoring so that they can set up their own businesses. In the last few months some of the women have decided to use their skills to set up a nursery for young children.

Esther Munduru, the director of Loka Women’s Association said:

“The war, the suffering, and then many people being forced to flee and become refugees disrupted things here. Southern Sudan used to produce more than enough food for itself but today most of our food is imported from neighbouring countries, or arrives in the form of food aid from Europe or America. Domestic violence is a big problem in Loka. Men get drunk and often beat up their wives because they are frustrated with life.

“The answers lie with the women of Sudan. Here at Loka Women's Association we are doing our best to improve their lives in different ways and we are seeing progress. We hold adult literary classes here at the centre and we have started a savings group in which each woman saves ten Sudanese pounds a week. It works as a rotating fund so each week one of the members can get a loan of £100 to use as capital to start their small business.

“We work together on farming projects. The whole group will dig someone's garden so things get done quickly and efficiently - and it's more fun working as a team. In this way people will become free of aid dependency and be more self- reliant.”

During the fighting, Silvia Kidden and her family hid in mountains just outside Loka where they survived by eating wild plants. Silvia missed out on an education but thanks to SCIAF and the Loka Women’s Association she has been trained in dress-making and hopes one day to set up her own business.

“All of us suffered, but it was especially difficult for the women”, she explained. “We were in constant danger of being raped or forced to carry the soldiers' food and supplies through the forests. Many of those who were made to do this were also raped, while others lost limbs due to stepping on land mines. We enjoy this training at Loka Women's Centre.”

With your help, SCIAF is hoping to shine a light in the darkness for the people of Sudan this Christmas and help rebuild a country which has been brought to its knees by decades of fighting. SCIAF is collecting messages of peace, support and encouragement from the Scottish public which will be read out over the airwaves and unite the people of southern Sudan in their struggle towards a lasting peace.

Your donations, prayers and messages of peace will bring a ray of light and hope to those who have lived most of their lives under the dark shadow of violence and war. Please give what you can this Christmas and help SCIAF to achieve its vision: a world in which all people, especially the poor and oppressed, have the opportunity and means to live life, and live it to the full.

Click here to make a donation to the SCIAf Christmas Appeal or call 0141 354 555.

If you would like to write a message or prayer of support to the people of southern Sudan, call 0141 354 555 or contact SCIAF at supporterservices@sciaf.org.ukand ask for a candle to be posted to you.