Kids for Kids

Kids for Kids is a British charity (not for profit) that was created in 2001 before the conflict erupted, to help children struggling to survive in remote villages in Darfur, Sudan. It is still the only charity created specifically to help the forgotten children of Darfur. It was listed in the top three UK charities for the International Development Charity of the Year at the UK Charity Awards.

The charity was founded by Patricia Parker MBE to help children who are facing lives of inconceivable hardship in remote villages of Darfur. Kids for Kids provides long term self sustainable projects, identified by the communities themselves—and, uniquely, run by them. Projects are designed to prevent small problems from becoming disasters. "Hospitals can be many miles away, and the few rural hospitals have virtually no equipment" said Parker. "Women go to hospital in labour, on the back of a donkey. Surely we could do better than that?"

The original inspiration for the charity which has transformed the lives of over 300,000 people through simple, commonsense interventions, was a chance meeting with a nine-year-old child who was struggling across the desert in the immense heat of Darfur, to fetch water for his brothers and sisters. It was a walk that took him seven hours, and then he faced the long walk back. His water also kept three little goats alive—their milk was the children's only source of protein, minerals and vitamins. Parker realised the symbiotic relationship between water and goats and determined to do something to help. "Aid agencies were in Darfur in 2001, and since then emergency aid has poured in to the region, but there is little, if any lasting benefit for families struggling to survive out of sight of the world" she said. "My idea was that I would ask ordinary people like me, to help, one goat at a time! If governments and INGOs couldn't do it—we would!"

Kids for Kids supports grass roots projects that communities identify as the most effective way of enabling them to help themselves. "We don't believe in charity" said Parker "our aim is to empower women to take charge of their own lives, long term". First priority is water and for the first time in a long while the Water Environment and Sanitation Department in North Darfur is in a position to drill as many hand pumps as Kids for Kids has money for. "A hand pump can be named after a donor" says Parker. Many Kids for Kids pumps are treasured as a living memorial for someone who has died, or to celebrate something special. In some areas, where hand pumps prove that there is plentiful water, they can be converted to submersible solar powered pumps which will help many people. This year one of the villages Kids for Kids is adopting is Kulkul, the village rebels took Parker and her son Alastair to when they were capture in 2005. Parker is hoping to be able to provide the first Kids for Kids' Solar Powered pump if they can raise the £20,000 ($30,358) Other Projects include the training of midwives—there is no health care in villages so that when there is obstructed labour, a common complication in a region where FGM (female genital mutilation) is widespread, means that rope delivery is the only form of help—first aid workers who treat simple wounds, teach hygiene and even build latrines—provide veterinary care, train in farming techniques and water harvesting, provide donkeys—the only transport in a region where there are no roads—donkey ploughs, carts and water carts, farm tools and seeds, blankets, mosquito nets and other household essentials—and, most importantly, the provision and repair of hand pumps. Long term improvement of the environment, the planting of trees, is another priority, and forms another source of income for families. An extensive tree planting campaign has been funded since 2006, with a Demonstration Garden in the main Tree Nursery in El Fasher, where trees planted back in 2006 are now tall enough to give shade and where people come to picnic at weekends. Kids for Kids has also funded a new Midwives Training School in El Fasher where they fund the training of 40 village midwives each year. But the Key project is a Goat Loan. The poorest 15 percent of families in each Kids for Kids village is lent six goats to provide milk immediately for the children and to enable mothers to have a livelihood as the little flock multiplies. At the end of two years six goats are passed on to another poor family, and so on. Eventually the whole community benefits from this simple, life changing, loan. It has been called the best Microfinance project ever. To ensure that the projects are sustainable and there is clear accountability, the management of the projects is carried out by village committees which are trained in book keeping—but, most importantly, they are accountable to their own communities. This has ensured that the projects have survived even during the worst periods of violence.

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