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Darfur, Sudan :: The logistics of assistance Michael Herring is a 26 year old logistician from Melbourne who is working with Médecins Sans Frontières in Darfur. This region in western Sudan has been the scene of widespread violence resulting in 1,2 million people fleeing their homes looking for security and assistance. I arrived in Khartum on the 2nd of July and than it took some time for all the necessary permits to come through before I, the project coordinator Lis who is a nurse and our doctor Kathie arrived in Shariya in South Darfur. We had to set up activities in this region, and I’m a sort of a mobile logistician between three locations, Shariya, Muhajariyia and Labado. Over the last four weeks we’ve been moving around, trying to set up, living out of huts or rakuba’s [shelter], getting rained on a lot. I make sure the supplies come in and that we have equipment to set up our feeding centers and support the clinics, where the medics already had to treat wounded. We have an excellent team and in the meantime it has expanded quite a bit. We’ve been working flat out and every day brings a new surprise. We already had to evacuate to Nyala once because of ongoing fighting. The second time there was heavy fighting we decided to wait and see for a while, and finally things settled down. Getting supplies in is not that easy. The roads are a problem and we sometimes travel a whole day. Once, having nearly arrived at our destination, we had to turn around because we couldn’t cross the last wadi [dried river bed] because of the rains. We also got stuck a few times, but luckily things are not so bad that they really hamper our work. We manage to keep on top of things. The people in this region need everything. In Muhajariya there are internally displaced people all around town, 20,000 without virtually anything. They only received a small distribution of non-food items [plastic sheeting, soap, mosquito nets…] from another organisation. They have constructed small shelters with whatever they could find like plastic bags. Food remains a big problem as well as water and sanitation. Water pumps are either gone or aren’t working, and we don’t find spare parts. People are using open boreholes and there is donkey dung everywhere. Nutrition wise, we have organised a blanket feeding distribution of high-proteine biscuits to children under five and the numbers are going up in our therapeutic feeding centers. The past two months have been a fantastic experience, I love it. We are helping people that are really vulnerable. We were the first aid workers here and everyone has been really helpful. People understand the importance of having us here, they are always ready to help and many of them I consider my friends already. Anouk Delafortrie
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