Today our COVID-19 brings us to El Neem, Health Facility in the Internally Displaced (IDP) Camp in East Darfur, Sudan. During these difficult times the team wanted to come up with a way to Spark Joy while ensuring that our customers observe social and physical distancing! Our team came up with a wonderful idea of drawing smiley faces as demarcations for spacing in the facility. The idea behind using smiley faces is to lighten up our customer’s mood and remove fear when they visit the facility during these hard times. Besides the floor, the team also marked the sitting benches in the facility using colored sprays. Taking the lead, Dr. Badreldin Abduelnabi who has been working with Alight in El Neem facility, as the Maternal and Child Health Technical Coordinator applauded the idea – saying “this approach supports our health facility front line staff and clients alike by providing safety.” Excited by the process of marking, Halima Yahia, a visiting customer couldn’t hide her … [Read more...] about Smiles on Benches and Faces

Today is our last day (for now) in Darfur. What an exciting time doing the doable with our team and with the communities in East Darfur and in Kalma displaced persons camp in South Darfur! We can't wait to be back here, doing the doable in Sudan! On our final day, we're doing something special for a member of the community who has such an important job. He's the first line of defense if there's ever an issue with the water in Kalma. In fact, he lives right next to the solar panels that run the water pumps in his section of the camp. If anything goes wrong, he knows about it quickly - and he's working on a solution and calling on others to help. He's a member of the water committee who is so important to keeping water flowing in Kalma. He's a volunteer, and we wanted to do something nice for him. And when we saw his home - next to the solar panel - we knew exactly what. He needed a roof. His roof of plastic sheeting was held down with bricks. It wasn't going to survive a … [Read more...] about A Roof for Water

It seems like no matter where we are, everyone loves football. In a refugee or displaced persons camp, football (or soccer) provides a much-needed outlet for young people. All that's needed, really, is some flat open ground and a soccer ball. And then football can offer hours of exercise. And joy in situations where joy and hope can sometimes be in short supply. So, when the youth leaders in Kalma Camp told us they needed soccer balls to distribute to all of Kalma's soccer teams - we were on board. Our team headed to the market to purchase as many balls as we could with our daily change budget. Such a small price for what will provide countless hours of excitement and entertainment for so many. … [Read more...] about We Heart Football

Transportation is what keeps Kalma Camp healthy. And usually that transportation in the form of a bus. People take the bus out of Kalma to go find work outside of the camp in nearby Nyala or elsewhere - the money they earn and then spend in Kalma is important to that community. People also wait for the bus to head to school outside the camp. Or to go the doctor, if the services they need aren't available inside the camp's health centers. But waiting for the bus can be tedious. And hot. And miserable. So our team thought - since the bus is so important to the residents of Kalma - a little shade where people can wait for the bus (people often wait an hour or more) could make a big difference. There's a central spot where buses, no matter which direction they're headed, converge to pickup Kalma passengers. Our team set to work staking out a small spot and erecting a simple shelter. They included a short wall all the way around so that there were plenty of places for people to sit. … [Read more...] about At the Bus Stop

On Days 333 and 334 we shared a little about how our fantastic health team in Kalma fought off a terrible cholera outbreak and how they were preparing in case history repeats itself. Our team had one more project they wanted to complete related to the diarrhea treatment center (DTC) in Kalma Camp. Hundreds of people had moved through the DTC at the height of the outbreak. The building did all that it needed to do, but it was left a little worse for wear. And once things settled down, our team shifted their focus to matters that had gone unattended during the outbreak. That left the DTC looking a little sad. So our team at Kalma’s Sector 1 Health Center – home of the DTC – suggested a simple, fresh coat of paint. Paint can do wonders. And once a single white coat of paint was up on those walls, inside and outside the DTC, our team was already feeling better about being ready for the next emergency. “We needed this,” said Dr. Fadua who runs the Health Center. “Even a little … [Read more...] about Healing Paint

The schools in Kalma Camp serve thousands of students. Yet, in terms of facilities, they are little more than empty buildings. Kalma’s schools don’t have desks or chairs for the children to sit, listen and study. “Kids sit in the dirt all day,” Adam Abdallah Musa told us. Adam is the overall camp leader in charge of schools in Kalma Camp. While we couldn’t afford desks and chairs for all the kids in Kalma, Adam explained that if students even had mats to sit on they would feel good. ”It will make them feel comfortable.” So our team worked the best deal they could and got 53 giant mats with our daily budget of $500. And those mats were distributed to 5 of the schools in Kalma that needed them most. “We’re just IDPs, we don’t have much to give,” Adam said. “But we’re doing our best. Just yesterday you were here and we told you what we needed. And now today you’re back here with it.” The real heroes are the teachers in Kalma’s schools. They are displaced people from the … [Read more...] about Out of the Dirt

We met some pretty fierce women’s advocates in Kalma Camp in South Darufr. And they told us some really incredible stories. Stories about accompanying victims of abuse and sexual violence to the clinic or the police station in the middle of the night. At their own personal expense. At times when they themselves were ill. And often to be scolded or treated with suspicion by the authorities. This women’s group was doing incredible work in a vacuum of organizations dedicated to preventing and responding to violence in Kalma Camp. But, it wouldn’t last if they had to continuing going it alone with their own very limited resources. So, to help the women’s union earn a little money to keep their work on behalf of Kalma Camp’s women going, we purchased them the materials to start up a small peanut butter business. With grinders and a bag of peanuts to get them started, the women could grind peanut butter to sell in Kalma (peanuts grow well in this part of Darfur). With sugar and a … [Read more...] about Women for Women

A simple sheet of metal can do so much. On one of our visits with the community leaders of Kalma Camp, they pointed out a small room that had been constructed of brick but never had a roof installed on top. The male and female leaders of the community traditionally met in separate same-sex groups. But with only a single meeting space, it meant that – in effect – the women’s groups didn’t have any place to meet. “They don’t have any place to go,” one of the sheikhs told us. A few sheets of zinc roofing did just the trick. We were able to roof this otherwise constructed room. And, ta-daa, there was now a space for female camp leaders to gather and talk about important issues happening in their communities. It’s just the beginning for women leaders trying to gain traction in Kalma Camp. … [Read more...] about A Simple Roof

The Sudanese are a hospitable people. And that’s what today in South Darfur was all about. Sadiq Adam has worked with us for the past 14 years. He started as a security guard in 2006. And for the last few years he had been studying for his certification as a medical assistant while continuing his work with us. Now Sadiq is a Medical Assistant at our Health Center in Sector 1 of Kalma Camp. And he’s been wanting to make a change there for several months now. “Mothers and children come to our health center early in the morning and often must wait all day before they receive care,” Sadiq told us. “I wish we could make sure they at least have some water to drink while they wait.” That seemed easy enough to do. And in Sudan, they already have a handy little hospitality custom that we could just copy. You’ll find large jugs of water, sitting beneath a shade, lining any street or road. They’re there for travelers to quench their thirsts and regain some strength as they continue on … [Read more...] about A Cool Drink of Water

Yesterday, while distributing blankets to the homeless in Nyala, Amani noticed a man in terrible suffering. Several months earlier, he’d been hit by a motorcycle and had taken a pretty nasty wound to his shin. Living on the street, he didn’t have any money to afford a visit the doctor. So instead of healing, his wound festered and deteriorated. Now, he was in a lot of pain. He was having a hard time getting by before the accident, but now he could neither look for work nor actually do work. We were worried about the prognosis for his leg, so we got him in to the doctor in Nyala the same day. He would be able to keep his leg, but he needed a surgery immediately. We gave the doctor the go-ahead, and the surgery was scheduled for the very next morning. But that was just the first hurdle. Loved ones are required to feed and care for their loved ones while they’re in the hospital – there is no staff on-call to provide that service. Our friend would be in the hospital … [Read more...] about Healthy Healing