International aid and development

Kids for Kids

Charity Awards

'Supporting neglected communities in Darfur'

'I certainly had no intention of starting a charity in Africa. I was visiting my son who was working as a diplomat in Khartoum, and we went to Darfur. It was March 2001 at the time of a severe drought, and we came across a nine year old boy who had been walking for seven hours to get water. The shocking thing was that agencies were there but were doing nothing about it.' Patricia Parker was so moved by this experience that she set up the charity three days later.

While the international aid community has focussed on the 2.5 million people who have fled to camps, 3.5 million remain in their villages, clinging to their homes and struggling to survive. Kids for Kids is virtually the only organisation providing support to these neglected communities.

Discussions with villagers revealed a particular need for goats and donkeys which had been lost to drought and the conflict, so made-in-kind goat and donkey loan schemes became a core part of Kids for Kids' activities. Due to the security situation it was essential that communities could be self-sufficient, so the charity engaged in building management capacity, training villagers as para-vets and establishing a revolving veterinary drugs fund. The women of the villages also expressed a fear of childbirth due to the risk of death, so Kids for Kids also started training village midwives.

In total its projects are reaching over 100,000 people. In 2006, 3,914 goats and 573 donkeys were distributed to around 650 families in 21 village communities, while 42 village midwives have been trained and are working with young women.  It is these activities which led the judges to describe it as 'a really excellent, innovative project, which has shown adaptability'.

Patricia Parker
Chairman
PO Box 456
Dorking
Surrey RH4 2WS
07957 206440
Reg no. 1100045
www.kidsforkids.org.uk