The Calais crisis is a tragedy, but what about the basic cause? Why are so many young men braving horrendous danger to try, by all means possible, to reach London? What are their lives like that they leave their homes and their families with no way to return? “My heart goes out to these young men following their Dick Whittington dream that the roads of London are paved with gold” said Patricia Parker MBE, founder of Kids for Kids, today. “Compared to the conditions they have left behind, they are right. In Darfur, even small children have to walk up to 20 miles to fetch every drop of water. Yet there is water underground. Children are dying from malaria because mothers cannot afford even a mosquito net. They have to ask their sons to leave, to find money to send home so that they can feed their children, but there are no jobs in Sudan.”
Kids for Kids has been helping families living in remote villages in Darfur, Sudan, to build a better life for themselves. “We don’t believe in charity; we believe in helping people to help themselves” says Patricia. “By providing the basics of life, we are helping them to take that first crucial step out of abject poverty. People want to stay in their own countries and their own homes. It is the desperate who have no alternative but to leave and join the ever growing sea of migrants.” To date, Kids for Kids has adopted 78 villages where young men are not only staying with their families, but others are moving to Kids for Kids’ villages because they know they will have a better chance.
UNICEF reports that children in every village of Darfur are malnourished, except in Kids for Kids’ villages. A surge of violence since the start of the year, is exacerbating the already extreme deprivation. “There are no malnourished children in Azargarfa” said village leader, Adam Sebil “Our village has grown from 3,000 to 5,000 since Kids for Kids introduced its whole package of grassroots projects to our community”. Adam is now the Chairman of the group of volunteer Darfurians which works with remote communities to provide Kids for Kids’ projects which, he says, “not only gives direct help to families, but lifts whole communities out of poverty”.
Patricia says “Kids for Kids’ philosophy could be adapted for other regions of the world. We are giving hope to young men who are so desperate that they risk their lives for a chance, any chance. For them, the streets of London really are paved with gold.”
30th July 2015
Note to Editors – below:
NOTES TO EDITORS
Kids for Kids helps children the world has forgotten, children in Darfur, Sudan, who live lives of inexcusable and unimaginable hardship.
Kids for Kids adopts whole villages, lifting them out of abject poverty. We are different because our projects are what the villagers tell us would help them the most. By combining a range of simple grassroots projects we not only make an immediate difference to individual families – their children have milk to drink from our Goat Loans, which gives the charity its name, a blanket to sleep under, a mosquito net to protect them from malaria and much more – we are transforming the lives of the whole village, providing health care, including village midwives, within reach, veterinary care for their animals, and most important of all, clean water close by so they are not at risk of attack on their long walk for water. The environment is not forgotten – long term transformation is achieved through the planting of thousands of drought resistant trees.
Kids For Kids has already adopted 78 villages, transforming the lives of over 350,000 people for the long term. But there is so much more that needs to be done and so many more villages to help.
Footage of Darfur and up to date Photographs are available.
For further information:
contact@kidsforkids.org.uk
Patricia Parker – 07957206440 patricia@kidsforkids.org.uk
Alex Sanderson – 07730609446 alex@kidsforkids.org.uk
Kate Douglas – 07979978409 kate@kidsforkids.org.uk
www.kidsforkids.org.uk
Patricia Parker MBE
Founder – Kids for Kids
CEO & Chairman of Trustees
Patricia@KidsforKids.org.uk
POBox 456
Dorking RH4 2WS
United Kingdom
SKYPE: patricia.parker1
07957 206440
pp Alex Sanderson
Assistant to Patricia Parker MBE
Alex@kidsforkids.org.uk