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18.08.2013 | Blog

A New Beginning in South Sudan

Assistance for returnees after the attainment of independence.

South Sudan is the world's newest country. On 9 July 2011, 99 percent of South Sudanese voted in favour of separating their region from the northern part of the country. After a long conflict, this referendum was a prerequisite for establishing a new country.

Now the stage is set for the independent development of oil-rich South Sudan – if the situation in the country remains stable. At the same time, this step towards independence has added another level of complexity to the situation in the rest of the country.

Children suffer most

Hundreds of thousands of citizens who had fled the civil war from 1983 to 2005 are now returning to their homeland – with little more than what they can carry on their back – to help build a new country. The returnees and large parts of the present population are barely able to meet their own basic needs. South Sudan needs help.

Welthungerhilfe supports the returnees and the impoverished population in the federal state of Northern Bahr al-Ghazal. Children suffer most from the current conditions. Warm meals help to feed approximately 750 school children daily. 

Survival packages for the first time

Needy families receive survival packages to help them manage in what are normally very difficult conditions. They also receive blankets, pails, seed and mosquito netting, along with food such as cornmeal, beans, cooking oil, salt and sugar. To ensure that children can attend school, Welthungerhilfe has set up 15 emergency classrooms equipped with kitchens and sanitary facilities. People also receive water disinfection tablets. These measures ensure that large numbers of small children, nursing mothers and pregnant women do not become sick due to contaminated water.

The aid measures are financially supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the German Corporation for International Cooperation GIZ

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