You can love, serve, and work together with the Sudanese

1 Comment » Written on November 18th, 2009
Filed under: Disaster Relief
Tags: South Sudan

The charge of CWR and theme for our recent materials is “to love, serve, and work together with the poor, the powerless, and the marginalized.” The Covenant Church of Sudan has submitted a funding request for a project that is exactly in line with this theme and we need your support to respond.

Most of East Africa, including Sudan, is in the midst of a severe drought. For parts of South Sudan a famine seems inevitable and many lives are at stake. You can read more on the drought here and here. The ECC of Sudan has submitted a great project to supply emergency relief aid to the most in need in their communities. The project is very simple in nature and the funds will go to purchasing and distributing corn (maize) and oil to those that have been identified as the most at risk in a variety of communities in South Sudan and one community in Ethiopia. Some of those that have been identified as most vulnerable are women-led households, the disabled, children and those with HIV/AIDS. Although the project is coordinated by the ECC of Sudan, the beneficiaries are not just church members. The project will serve the entire community, not just those in one particular tribe or religion. They anticipate they will serve 70,000 individuals.

One great aspect of this project is that it is completely designed, administrated and managed by local Sudanese people. We, as CWR and the ECC in the US and Canada, are not coming in and telling the local people how to do a project or what project would be best. The local community has identified the problem and the best ways to love and serve their own community in response. We are able to walk alongside them and continue to empower and encourage them as they love and serve their own community.

Another important note is that it is very intentional that we are sending money and not sending corn and oil from the US. You can read a recent CWR blog on this topic here. By buying the maize and oil in the local markets instead of in the US and shipping it, we are not only able to provide the relief much more quickly, we are able to boost the local economy.

As a note, the ECC of Sudan was actually formed in Ethiopia when the Sudanese were refugees there. There are still ECC of Sudan churches in this community in Ethiopia and since this drought is affecting an entire region and the ECC of Sudan has connections and relationships with this community in Ethiopia, it is only natural for them to serve that community as well.

You can read more in a Covenant news story here. If you or your church would like to be involved in this project, please call us at 773.784.3000. You can also donate online here.