Our current work in Sudan

As part of our Protection Program, Austcare is helping to protect the most vulnerable by seconding highly qualified Australian and New Zealander Protection Officers to UN agencies in South Sudan and Darfur.  The Protection officers are supporting UN partner agencies and international community efforts to ensure that the most vulnerable of the displaced Sudanese population are protected and assisted during the transition period between disaster relief and development activities.

For example, our Repatriation Officer in Juba is working with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is currently assisting in preparing people for the difficult journey home. 

This role involves ensuring comprehensive needs assessments are conducted to identify vulnerabilities and risks of internally displaced people and other affected populations, including risks related to gender and age. Once vulnerabilities have been identified, protection and assistance needs are addressed through working with local agencies and governments.  Through organising training workshops and support initiatives to increase the capacity of national authorities, UN agencies and other organisations, the Repatriation Officer is advocating and raising awareness about the situations of internal displacement and promoting durable solutions.

Other tasks include:

 - Monitoring the repatriation of refugees in safety and dignity.

 - Supervising the planning of cross-border activities.

 - Ensuring returnee monitoring reports are regularly prepared in order that problems faced by returnees are identified and necessary interventions are made.

 - Planning and participating in cross-border missions to plan for repatriation movements, and

 - Identifying obstacles to voluntary repatriation and making recommendations to address those obstacles.

 Highlights

With UK-based aid organisation Merlin, Austcare recently completed a water and sanitation project at El Geneina Hospital in Western Darfur.  In an area where IDPs outweigh the resident population by approximately four to one, poverty is rife and hygiene and sanitation poor. The hospital serves a population of 410,000, with a high incidence of diarrhoeal disease and Hepatitis E. 

As part of this program:

•  - New concrete and brick pit latrines were constructed by locally employed engineers and construction teams.  Separate hand washing facilities were also created for each block.  For many displaced women, these facilities are the only safe place for washing clothes and cooking equipment.