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Stephen green in SUDAN 
Stephen Green is a logistician from Sydney, on his second mission in Sudan with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). He is currently based in a town called Korma, in North Darfur, preparing for future distribution of food and non-food items to the population in the surrounding districts. Korma is approximately 80 kilometres from El Fashir where we have a mini coordination team. Every two weeks, we drive between the two to re-stock supplies, food, logistical items, etc. It’s basically desert, with three rivers that come and go according to the origin of the rains. There are some areas where the water table is very high, which makes it soft and muddy. We got stuck on the way here, but for now it’s not much of a problem. We pass a few small villages on the way where you can see the people planting in these high water table areas. Korma is controlled by the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). The SLA controls small areas all over Darfur, and in between them it’s either the Sudanese Army or government-backed militia. You cannot land a plane here so the market has no supply. What’s more, very few vehicles come through here as they have to cross the frontline, and for this you need permission. We are allowed of course. However, before we can travel, we must apply for a travel permit, and we must inform each party of our movement. As such, they expect us, and movement inside town isn't a problem. The MSF site here is divided into the following four sections, approximately 200m apart in a rough line: 1. A staff compound that is a ramshackle place suffering from wind and rain. It has the usual things, except for a chicken pen and the reinforced concrete bunker, which we will never use. 2. The office includes a logistics store, generator room and radio room. There is currently a water problem as it gathers on the ground and stays for days, especially in the well walked areas. 3. The distribution site is an old school building. This is made up of 10 very large rooms. I hope to have 500 tons of food, 100,000 bars of soap and a large amount of cooking oil. I’m currently making an inventory of the stock remaining from the last distribution. I have to put the food outside, as it is the best way to count it. This also means I can clean and fumigate all the rooms, so I can accommodate new stock. I have employed eight good men to help with this. I hope to have this done in the next few days as we will soon receive approximately 480 tonnes of food in 20kg bags. 4. In the health clinic and dispensary we only have eight beds for in-patients but we make a lot of general consultations. Today we have a pregnant lady who has been in labour for two days. She will be taken to El Fashir tomorrow. Tom (our field nurse) had no success inducing the birth, and as it was late we cannot move her until tomorrow. He is sure she will lose the baby – a common occurrence here. Our main objective here is food distribution. A food distribution will hopefully take place in the first week of September. We will distribute one bottle of oil, one bar of soap and one 20kg bag of Unimix (vitamin and mineral enriched flour) to every child under five. There are approximately 9,000 children in each distribution so the workload is huge. I will have to set up water bladders for the population as each distribution can take two or three days. I will also have to find a way of putting up shade cloths as it is still 35°C at midday. MSF has been working in Darfur since December 2003. With 180 international and 3,000 Sudanese staff operating in 32 locations across the region, Darfur continues to be one of MSF’s largest operations worldwide.
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