Working together to end poverty and injustice

Crisis in Darfur and Chad

The Darfur crisis remains one of the world's largest concentrations of human suffering.

• Almost 5 million people in Darfur and eastern Chad now live in need of humanitarian aid
• 2.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to violence

You can help

Oxfam aims to respond immediately to humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters, but we can only do this if we have funds ready when they are needed. You can help:

• Donate now to Oxfam's disaster response fund
• or call on 0800 400 666

The situation

Since early 2003, ongoing violence has forced forces thousands more of people to flee every month. Yet aid workers in the region are finding it increasingly difficult and dangerous to reach the people in need. When the licences of 16 aid agencies were revoked in March 2009, the precarious situation on the ground became dire.

Oxfam is there

We are currently helping more than 235,000 people in Darfur and eastern Chad by:

• ensuring access to clean water and sanitation and hygiene programmes to people living in diffilcult conditions in camps;
• carrying out public health education programmes to prevent the spread of disease;
• providing assistance in restoring incomes, fuel-efficient stoves;
• distributing basic necessities such as blankets, soap and jerry cans for carrying water;
• helping people to find an alternative to relying on external aid through livelihoods projects. Many people affected by the conflict no longer have the means to make a dignified living: farmers who have been displaced from their land, herders who have lost their animals, and widows who are trying to raise children alone. Oxfam partners offer grants and small business loans, as well as assets like donkeys, donkey carts, seeds, and ploughs;
• our fuel-efficient stove programme is helping protect Darfur’s fragile environment by reducing the need for firewood and charcoal. Last year a workshop was launched that is now employing displaced people to assemble more than 9,000 stoves for distribution;
• rehabilitating a nursery, and planting tens of thousands of tree seedlings around camps and schools for displaced people.

Oxfam Unwrapped in Darfur

By buying a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped you can help support our emergency work in Darfur. Take a look at Oxfam Unwrapped's gifts with a difference in Darfur and help lift people out of poverty, for good.