Speaking Out for Sudan

Oxfam activist Ingrid MacDonald is helping to raise awareness of her organisation’s work in war-torn Darfur, Sudan. The Waiuku-born aid worker is currently based in Chad, where camps have been set up to house the millions of Sudanese refugees flooding across the border. “After four years of conflict, there are nearly two and a half million displaced people in Darfur, and four million now have to rely on support from organisations like Oxfam,” she says. “Some of the camps where people displaced by the conflict are now sheltering are the size of Dunedin or Tauranga.” As well as providing the refugees with clean water, food and medical supplies, Oxfam is helping to set up small businesses within the camps by training refugees in skills such as plumbing, carpentry and brick-making. The organisation is currently seeking to raise US$1 million internationally to continue its work in Chad.