In Calais, I met a 16-year-old refugee from Sudan. This fundraising aims to provide sustainable solutions so his family and famine-struck millions like them won't have to send out their oldest sons in search of a better life. I am raising funds so he wouldn't have to cross the Libyan desert, helplessly leave a best friend to die of dehydration, be sold as a slave by police in Libya to be tortured and forced to work in farms for nothing, and when too weak to work be trafficked at gunpoint by gangs to get in a dinghy not meant for 50.

CAFOD’s current humanitarian response in Sudan focuses on the states in the White Nile and North Darfur, providing life saving support to IDPs, refugees and host communities. The programmes include interventions in water, sanitation and hygiene, WASH, and nutrition, cash assistance and protection, and health services concerning gender based violence, GBV.

Since the start of the current crisis, CAFOD has extended emergency support to South Kordofan, Khartoum, and Gedaref. In Khartoum and other high risk areas, CAFOD has partnered with local community based organisations, namely Emergency Response Rooms, and church institutions to provide critical assistance, including ready to eat food, essential medication and other emergency supplies.

CAFOD has worked in Sudan since 2004, and donations to the Sudan Programme and Emergency Appeal are ringfenced funding for the region.

Concerning stewardship, in every pound donated, in 2023 to 2024, 90p was spent on delivering charitable activities while 10p was spent on support costs. The year before the split was 91p to 9p. 2024 to 2025 figures to follow.

£5 can provide clean water to a family.

£40 provides emergency shelter for a refugee family.

£50 can provide emergency food packages.

Step 1: Make a donation.

Step 2: An email with further updates on the crisis and instructions on claiming a personalised line drawing portrait see samples below.

The 16 year old I met said he wanted to be a History teacher.

Befriend the friendless, the vulnerable mother and child who escaped violence has only tears trying to sleep in the wild among scorpions and snakes with just a plastic sheet for cover. All the while, her child's cries of hunger pierce the endless night.

Time is of the essence, the famine-struck resort to eating leaves off trees, blades of grass - if they are lucky - rats!

Be generous and turn the tide so my young friend can report in his telling of history how someone cared and gave in faith.

Act now. Draw the line. Give hope. You can.

Stefanie

Sample line drawings.

A history of violence. (Source:https://i0.wp.com/paanluelwel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/sudan-south-sudan-borderline-map.jpg?ssl=1 )