The United Nations considers Darfur’s the ‘worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.’

1. What you should know about the Darfur crisis & what Canadian high school students like you are doing to make a difference.

2. Darfur is a region in western Sudan, the largest country in Africa. Darfur is home to 6 million people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. There is a history of people living together in reasonable peace despite their cultural, social and economic differences.

3. Darfur is a poor a region with little infrastructure and few natural resources. The land is generally hot, dry and difficult to farm. However, cooperation and trade between communities, as well as hard work, help people survive a variety of challenges.

4. In April of 2003, two armed rebel groups attacked a government military base, triggering a conflict now approaching its 6th year. As the violence has drawn on, the number of groups fighting has multiplied and negotiations for peace have become more complex. A joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping mission known as UNAMID has been unable to enforce security or protect vulnerable populations as it was mandated to do. This is largely due to efforts by the Sudanese Government to delay UNAMID’s deployment, and a lack of commitments from the international community and United Nations donor states.

5. Much of the violence has targeted civilians and their villages, in violation of international law. 3.5 million people have fled their homes to escape attacks; another 300,000 have died. Villages are burnt to the ground so that residents can’t return home.

6. Those who make it out of their villages must take refuge wherever they can. Sometimes it takes days or weeks for them to reach a camp for displaced people, traveling with just the clothes on their backs. Often, families are missing members who were lost in the chaos of an attack, or who didn’t make it out of the village alive. Everyone, including the children, are traumatized by what they’ve seen.

7. Life in camps for displaced people is difficult. People must make do with shelters made of tarps and sticks. Essential supplies often don’t arrive because delivery trucks have been hijacked or stopped en route. Young girls and women are often subject to violent attacks as the leave the camps in search of firewood and water. Medical services are limited or altogether inaccessible. Many people, particularly children, get ill or die from preventable diseases.

8. Tens and even hundreds of thousands of people seek shelter in the same place, stretching camp resources, and creating tensions with local populations. The United Nations considers Darfur’s the ‘worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.’

9. This poster from the International Committee of the Red Cross displays photos of children separated from their families after attacks. Some have no family left to find them. This drawing documents the attack on one child’s home village. He was only 13 years old when he drew it.

10. Displacement, violence and instability in Darfur is particularly difficult for young people. They are incredibly vulnerable to acute malnutrition and preventable diseases. 1.8 million kids have been directly affected by the crisis.

11. Young people are also the targets of violence, particularly young girls, as they go out in search of firewood and necessary supplies for their families. The boys are subject to recruitment by armed groups. It’s a luxury in Darfur for kids to get to just be kids.

12. Relief agencies and organizations provide displaced Darfurians with a lot of food, water, sanitary equipment and medical care that they need to survive. But in the past year, increased violence has forced many of these groups to scale down their operations, or leave all together. 3.5 million people currently depend on international support in their daily lives. 500,000 people have been completely cut off from this lifeline due to insecurity.

13. Many organizations – including several from Canada - provide support to Darfuri kids and their families, that they would not otherwise be able to obtain. Services for youth in particular include educational programming, psycho-social assistance and the planning of recreational activities.

14. Most of those displaced in Darfur would like to return to their home villages, and get on with rebuilding their lives. Unfortunately, it’s not safe for them to do right now. Furthermore, the longer they live in relief camps, the less likely it becomes that they will be able to return.

15. The crisis in Darfur is destroying communities and lives.

16. But Canadian students are taking matters into their own hands to make a difference for young people in Darfur. The Darfur Challenge is a competition between groups across the country to raise funds and awareness about the situation in Darfur. Participants also engage in national campaigns to make sure Darfur is on the agendas of Canadian foreign policy decision-makers.

17. Funds raised in The Darfur Challenge will be shared between Canadian organizations that are responding to the crisis in Darfur. The Darfur Challenge is a campaign of Save Darfur Canada, a national advocacy coalition of more than 30 groups and organizations. Find out more about SDC and its work at: www.SDCanada.org

18. Join us, won’t you? www.DarfurChallenge.org THE DARFUR CHALLENGECanadian students making a difference for young people in Darfur. November 3rd, 2008 – May 2, 2009

19. Child of hope