UM agency commits $1 million for relief in Sudan

United Methodist News Service
STAMFORD, Conn.—Responding to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the United Methodist Committee on Relief has approved a $1 million start-up budget for work in the African country.
The budget is to cover personnel, equipment, operations costs and program activities. Elected relief committee directors approved the funding during the April 11-14 meeting of the General Board of Global Ministries, the agency’s parent organization.
Sudan remains a priority for the board, said the Rev. R. Randy Day, its chief executive. In March the United Nations estimated that at least 180,000 people had died in the Darfur region during the previous 18 months because of illness and malnutrition.
Up to 2 million have been displaced because of fighting between Sudanese government forces and rebel groups.
United Methodist work targets the people of South Darfur, where fewer humanitarian services are available, and focuses on agriculture, small-scale livelihoods and distribution of nonfood items. Marc Maxi, regional relief committee director for Africa and the Caribbean, said the coordinating team in the Sudan is “fully assembled.”
The agency’s head of mission has established an office in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city. The finance director and administrative, logistics and security manager are also based there. The emergency coordinator has set up a field office in Al Daein in South Darfur.
Initial work focuses on about 250 families in the Ed Al Fursan community south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
About a third of the start-up budget comes from a $311,448 grant from Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, Ohio.
That money, according to Maxi, will be used for agriculture work, including seeds, tools and agricultural extension activities. Planting is to begin in late April, with harvesting expected in September.
Bishop Bruce Ough of West Ohio, a relief director, explained how the church’s donation for the Sudan work came about.
“The pastor challenged the congregation to take half of what they normally would spend for Christmas presents and give it to this offering,” the bishop said.
A grant of $204,000 from Neighbors in Need, a German donor group, will be used for nonfood items such as cooking pots and blankets, Ough said.
“We consider what we’re doing now as an investment to leverage more financing,” Maxi added.
The project also has received $337,250 in funding from donations to UMCOR’s Advance for the Sudan Emergency and $177,714 from the Helen Shepherd Fund, a board-related bequest for food security.
Donations for the “Sudan Emergency,” Advance No.184385, can be dropped into church collection plates.