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Boys latrines at a school in Abu Shouk camp, North Darfur. Photo: Jane Beesley/Oxfam
How many people is Oxfam helping?
Around 530,000 people are benefiting directly from Oxfam's response to the Darfur humanitarian crisis - more than 435,000 people in Darfur and 95,000 people in Chad.
What kind of work is Oxfam doing?
Oxfam works with communities to save lives. Our programs are designed to keep people healthy and reduce disease, and to help people maintain their basic human dignity. We:
- Provide vital clean, safe water by drilling boreholes and constructing pipes and tap stands
- Improve sanitation to help fight the spread of disease by building latrines and washing facilities, and distributing essential items such as soap and buckets and jerry cans for carrying water
- Distribute essential items such as plastic sheeting, materials for shelters, and blankets for the cold nights
- Work in close coordination with local people to ensure that our work meets the real needs and priorities of Darfur, involving communities at every step of the decision-making process. In particular, we work with women's groups and other marginalised sectors of society to ensure that everyone benefits from our programs
- Train hundreds of community volunteers to educate others about sanitation and personal hygiene, and recruit attendants from within the camp's communities to keep toilets and washing facilities clean, and to make sure water sources are protected
- Work with children - using entertaining plays, music and school activities to pass on hygiene education messages and influence behaviour at a vital early age
- Promote better management of natural resources such as water - both in our own work and within the wider community. We have installed water loggers to track the level of the water table and are encouraging water recycling to meet people's various needs
- Work to provide people with skills and opportunities to gain an income and reduce the dependency on external aid. For example, we are training plumbers, welders, vets and carpenters and are distributing seeds, tools and ploughs in areas where they can be used. We have also distributed donkeys and animals
Who works for Oxfam in Darfur?
Oxfam has around 300 Sudanese staff and 25 expatriate staff working in Darfur plus many more volunteers from within the camps and half a dozen expatriate support staff based in Khartoum.
Many of our staff have worked for Oxfam or other humanitarian agencies for many years, and we are represented by nationalities from all over the world including Australia, France, India, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Spain, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe.
And what do they do?
They include engineers, public health promoters, accountants, logisticians, project managers, protection advisers, well drillers, HR advisers, food security analysts, livelihoods experts, administrators, and the support staff needed to keep a program of this size running.
Where in Darfur does Oxfam work?
Oxfam is one of the few aid agencies working in all three Darfur states and Chad. In North Darfur we work in the camps of Abu Shouk and Al Salaam around El Fasher, in Kebkabiya town and the surrounding villages, and in the camps near Shangil Tobai town. In South Darfur we now work in Kalma camp and in Kass town and the surrounding camps while in West Darfur we work in and around Um Dukhun town. Oxfam Intermon also works in Djabal and Goz Amer camps in eastern Chad for refugees from Darfur.
Oxfam also continues to work elsewhere in Sudan - in the capital, Khartoum, Red Sea State, and in various locations in Southern Sudan.
How much money does Oxfam spend in Darfur?
Oxfam's programs in Darfur for 2007/2008 - providing vital assistance to over half a million people - have a budget of $13 million.
Where does the money come from?
Oxfam's humanitarian response in Darfur is supported by a range of donors:
- Oxfam supporters and the general public, through public appeals and initiatives such as Oxfam Unwrapped
- Institutional support, with significant funding coming from the United Kingdom Department for International Development, the European Commission's Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid, the Disasters and Emergencies Commission, and the Common Humanitarian Fund for Sudan
- Oxfam Australia and Oxfam affiliates in Ireland, the Netherlands and Quebec have raised funds from government agencies, securing contracts from AusAID, Irish Aid, the Dutch government and CIDA respectively
- Oxfam Australia and Oxfam affiliates in America, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, and Hong Kong have also given from their own funds