€6,000

Bishops’ Appeal has supported Fields of Life’s South Sudan emergency appeal to provide relief for the displaced people of Eddi Archdeaconry in the Diocese of Maridi.

In 2011 South Sudan gained independence from Sudan ending Africa’s longest-running civil war. A huge majority of South Sudanese voted in the 2011 referendum to secede and become Africa’s newest country.

Unfortunately, the country plunged into crisis two years later amid a power struggle between the president and his deputy whom he had sacked. Fighting between the largely Dinka government and rebel Nuer factions erupted into a conflict that killed tens of thousands and prompted more than 2.2 million people to flee their homes by the time a tentative and short-lived internationally-mediated peace agreement was signed in 2015. This year has seen the two sides return to conflict and continued attempts to broker a peace deal have failed and intransigence has led to the vice president leaving the country and his post.

In September 2016, Bishop Justin of the Diocese of Maridi appealed directly to Fields of Life to assist Eddi Archdeaconry after a traumatic incursion by government troops and rebels left many dead and injured as the population fled for their lives into the jungle.

The project aims to support 361 households and a total population of 2,527, providing food items including maize/corn, salt, ground nuts and beans as well as non-food items such as blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans, kitchen utensils, washing soap etc. as well as providing Trauma Counselling. The five displaced groups will come together for an organised distribution of the food and non-food items and the delivery of the Trauma Counselling. The distribution of the items will be supervised and monitored by the Diocesan Development Department and local Pastors.

The specific objectives include:

1.    The provision of food for a family for four months including maize/corn, ground nuts, salt and cooking oil by February 2017

2.    The provision of trauma counselling for all 360 displaced family households by end of December 2016;

3.    The provision of two blankets and two family mosquito nets per family by end of November 2016;

4.    The provision of a set of pots, pans, kitchen utensils and a jerry can and soap by end of November 2016