El Ferdous Models United Methodist Hospitality
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El Ferdous drummer and dancers show hospitality to camp visitors. Some 4 million Sudanese are displaced; hundreds of thousands live in camps like El Ferdous. Credit: Linda Beher/UMCOR |
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On a braided track barely discernable from the floor of the savanna in South Darfur, a convoy of pick-up trucks and high profile vehicles picked its way southwest from Al Daein on a morning in late August. Each truck bore the white and blue flag of UMCOR, smartly snapping in the light breeze.
Headed to El Ferdous, the convoy forded several rushing watercourses and slid through beds of mud. At every bend in the track, every driver "hooted," or honked, to warn approaching vehicles. The 40-mile drive took two and a half hours. Stretching before the convoy: the eternal reaches of the Sudan savanna, a horizon unpunctuated by any landform, an almost unearthly green, a pewter sky.
The displaced persons camp at El Ferdous and its host community have a total population of about 30,000. The camp is one of five where UMCOR has programs in this region.
The El Ferdous camp has become something of a model of camp coordination for this part of South Darfur. The reception center, an UMCOR innovation, is described as the only "humane" reception center in the Darfur region. Hospitality is important to residents of both host community and camp, who join together in welcoming visitors with dancing, chants, music, drumming, and speeches from community leaders.
Under a roof of grasses and reeds woven in a complicated diamond pattern, new arrivals provide information about their home towns, their families, and their needs during the registration process. A leader shows new family members to the temporary gotia, or houses, inside a protected compound. They will live in one of the gotia until they learn where to choose a site for their own house and build a home using cut branches, grass and reeds found near camp as well as plastic sheeting and mats from UMCOR. Community leaders also point out the necessities: water station, pit latrine, and food distribution area.
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On the woodland savanna UMCOR trucks creep over barely visible tracks from village to village, camp to camp.
Credit: Linda Beher/UMCOR |
Since its installation in June 2004, the reception center has hosted some 20 to 25 households a month. Information collected at the center is shared so that the most vulnerable households can receive what they need not only from UMCOR but from other international agencies working in the area.
UMCOR is working on assisting displaced people in Sudan to find their way home, to return to peaceful farming or work. United Methodists can get involved in these ministries through giving to UMCOR Advance #184385, Sudan Emergency. United Methodist Committee on Relief is a 501(c)(3) charity and all contributions are fully tax deductible. Checks may be mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10187-9068. Donors using a credit card may call toll free 800-554-8583.
Part 6
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