WASHINGTON — The Christian aid organization Sudan Relief Fund is helping thousands of South Sudan’s refugees and internally displaced persons by supplying water and other life-saving assistance in the midst of the country’s devastating conflict.

“We are changing focus” to help the Southern region more directly, said Neil Corkery, the group’s executive director.

While the organization is continuing its development projects around the country, it is “focusing on humanitarian needs” in central South Sudan for those affected by sectarian violence as well as areas that are hosting thousands of displaced persons.

In December 2013, violence erupted between forces loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, a member of the Dinka tribe, and those allied behind former Vice President Riek Machar, a member of the Nuer tribe.

The resulting conflict, arising less than three years after the country gained independence from the Republic of Sudan, following a 20-year-long civil war, has killed thousands. It has also forced nearly 900,000 people from their homes and placed around 3 million people in danger of starvation, according to estimates by the United Nations.

The Sudan Relief Fund, started in 1998, has focused on humanitarian aid, infrastructure improvement and development in the Nuba Mountains and South Sudan for more than two decades. Working with local Catholic dioceses, the organization started a hospital named “Mother of Mercy” in the Nuba Mountains (still a disputed territory between the Republic of Sudan and South Sudan), in addition to working alongside eight parishes and starting a teacher-training program in the region.

The organization has also begun a teacher-training program in Malakal, in the eastern center of South Sudan, a vocations-training center in eastern South Sudan, a nurse-training facility in the Diocese of Wau to the west and an agricultural and educational training center in Yambio, along the southwestern border of South Sudan.

 

‘Humanitarian Crisis’

Corkery said that due to the increased violence, South Sudan is “very much changed into a humanitarian crisis,” and the organization is shifting its focus to “lifesaving issues.”

“Where the real crisis is now is in a different part of the country” from the Sudan Relief Fund’s other operations, he said, adding that the organization is still able to help the displaced and needy in these areas.

The Sudan Relief Fund just authorized two large water filters for use in a displaced-persons camp (run by Samaritan’s Purse, another Christian organization) in the eastern part of the country, where the fighting has been concentrated. The Sudan Relief Fund is also helping to assist with food and medical aid for persons displaced by the violence.

Displaced persons, however, are also spread throughout the country, and the organization is helping to distribute survival kits containing basic cooking supplies, nutritional staples and essential needs to women and children seeking shelter in other regions of South Sudan.

“The people who are suffering the most are these women and children,” Corkery said.

The organization’s structure and connections to the local Church is essential, he added, to delivering aid.

According to a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center, Christianity forms much of South Sudan’s social structure, with more than 60% of the population professing Christian beliefs, forming a population of more than 2.7 million Catholics and more than 2 million Anglican Christians spread throughout dioceses in the country.

With the increase in violence and breakdown of reliable political infrastructure, “the only reliable way to get aid is through these faith-based organizations,” Corkery said.  

While the United Nations and USAID are trying to provide aid in the crisis, he continued, many of their current efforts are focused on building infrastructure. In addition, the “organizations with large hierarchies,” he said, are not as able as they are to set up aid networks quickly.

“Unless you’re using the Church, there’s no way to reliably get aid,” he said, explaining it is the churches who are already in local communities serving the people. He pointed to the cathedral in Malakal, which has been serving as an unofficial refuge for thousands of internally displaced persons since December, feeding and sheltering more than 5,000 people who have nowhere else to turn.

“We believe we will be able to be effective,” he said, “because we’re small” and connected to existing aid structures through Church networks.