Volunteer Stories from Darfur

'We feel very scared.'

If adults don't often get the chance to send a message to the world outside Darfur then it's virtually impossible for children. Below children, boys and girls, aged between 7 and 14 talk about what it's like to live in a camp and describe a typical day in their lives.
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A fragile existence

With over 2 million people fleeing the conflict in Darfur to live in camps and towns, the needs of people who have remained in some of the villages is often overlooked. Around Kebkabiya, in North Darfur, Oxfam is working in more than 30 villages, and, apart from MSF running some health clinics, Oxfam is the only organisation working in these rural areas.
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'We will continue to volunteer.'

One of the remarkable discoveries about Darfur is the number of people who are still volunteering after 3 years of living in Abu Shouk and Al Salaam camps in North Darfur. These volunteers are people who fled the conflict and are now living in the camps outside El Fasher. The volunteers are unpaid. Sixty percent of the original Health Committee volunteers in Abu Shouk, and a staggering eighty percent in Al Salaam are still very active and exceptionally committed. They perform an essential role in the health and welfare of the people in the camps, which have a combined population of around 100,000.
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Take just one volunteer

Kaltoum Ali Asad has been a volunteer with one of Oxfam's Health Committees since arriving in Abu Shouk camp just over three years ago. Having fled her home due to the conflict in Darfur she's currently living in the camp with her eight children, who are aged three to seventeen.
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Helicopter, Landrover and Rocket - the donkeys of Um Dukhun

This year Oxfam has distributed 530 donkeys to people in and around the border town of Um Dukhun in West Darfur, where there are refugees from the Central African Republic and Chad as well as people who have fled the fighting in Darfur. The donkeys have been distributed as part of Oxfam's livelihoods support programme, and besides helping their new owners earn a living, the donkeys carry water, firewood, and materials to build homes.
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A message to the outside world

There's no sea, there are few bottles.and there's little opportunity for many people living in the camps in Darfur to get a single message to the outside world. On a recent visit to several of the camps Oxfam is working in, people were asked, 'If you could send a message to the outside world what would it be?' Below are some of their responses.
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The past is another country

As thoughts in the northern hemisphere turn to summer holidays, many people's main concern is, 'Will it rain?' In Darfur it's certainly going to rain heavily for the next few months. For many people, who have fled the conflict in Darfur, they've now been living in the camps for over three years. It's not difficult to know where they long for.
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