Support for women in refugee camps in Darfur

Since the middle of 2004, medica mondiale has been working in cooperation with the Sudanese human rights organisation Khartoum Center für Human Rights and Environmental Development (KHRECD). “We can certainly use your financial support and expertise at this moment as we want to set up a treatment centre for torture victims in Darfur as soon as possible”, said Project Coordinator Amira M. Khair in Khartoum. She requested support for women in refugee camps in the Nyala Region of South-Darfur.

A joint project was drafted for the benefit of the women and men who work for local humanitarian aid associations in the refugee camps. Its main goal was to provide information and raise awareness concerning human rights, women’s rights and trauma. Thereafter, these staff members were to be deployed to the refugee camps in order to provide counselling and support to traumatised women – and to bring them into contact with further offers of support.

First training session successfully completed

After a period of intensive preparation, the first training session took place in November 2004. News that there was going to be a seminar on sexualised violence against women, trauma and human rights spread like wildfire. Interest was so great, especially among women activists from the refugee camps, that on the first day there were 87 men and women at the entrance instead of the 40 who had originally been expected. „Many of the women participating are traumatised themselves and need professional help. Finally, we decided to admit them all to the seminar,“ says Amira Khair. Additionally, 20 women physicians and lawyers currently working with refugees took part in the training session.

Thus, for one week, 100 women and men in Nyala participated in an intensive information and education program on sexualised violence against women, trauma and basic human and women` s rights. For many, this was their first exposure to the theme in a professional context. „I was very touched by how open the participants were in allowing us to share their personal experiences“, said Amira Khair. „They made it even more evident just how great the need for professional support and further information and training was in Darfur“.

Deployment to the camp

Subsequently, 20 women participants were deployed to their initial postings at Camp Kalma. With more than 100 000 refugees, it is the largest refugee camp in the region, and even now, new families are arriving daily. At camp, the participants tried to make contact with the women and girls involved. Amira Khair: “At first, many of them could barely say anything at all about what they had experienced. However, the relief workers we had trained, who are, in part, refugees themselves, were able communicate with the victims and were thus able to provide them with some sense of release, as in many cases, they had nobody to confide in.”

The health and social status of women and girls subjected to sexualised violence

Most of the rape victims we encounter are suffering from venereal disease and fistulas resulting from injuries to the urogenital tract that have not been medically treated. Moreover, mutilation of the female genitals is widespread in this region, and this has further adverse effects on injuries and disease of the genitalia. In general, the women affected had not received adequate medical care either immediately after being raped or after their arrival at the refugee camp. This indicates that the physicians working there still require a great deal of awareness-raising and training with regard to traumatised women. There is also a great shortage of medicine.

One major problem for surviving women is the children born as a result of being raped. They are called ‘Jana Janjaweed’, ‘children of the Janjaweed’. Their mothers are outcasts of the community and do not receive birth certificates for these children, which means e.g. that later they will not be able to attend school. Also, many men divorce their wives after they have been raped. Still others consider this act of violence to be a twist of fate and do not separate from their wives. Nevertheless, in eyes of the community, the victims remain stigmatised.

Further planning: First-aid station in ‚Kornoks’

The first deployment to the camp clearly showed that the first priority is improved medical care. So far, three wooden huts, so-called ‚Kornoks’ have been erected as a meeting point and base for the aid workers. medica mondiale is now planning to equip one of these Kornoks as a first-aid station for survivors of sexualised violence. Despite the difficulties involved, our cooperation partner is making every effort to find a woman doctor who is willing to work under the gruelling conditions which exist at Kalma Camp.

Advanced training

At the beginning of June, a follow-up seminar was held for the 20 woman relief-workers who had completed their first posting at Kalma Camp. Its aim was to consolidate the knowledge previously acquired. Emphasis was placed on the consequences of sexual violence against women. If all goes as planned, they will return to the refugee camp in autumn of this year to make contact with survivors of sexualised violence, to talk to them if desired, and if necessary, to “refer” them to the ‚Kornoks’ and other offers of aid and assistance.

This project has been financed in part through resources of the Parliament of South Tyrol.

Information about Sudan