Blog Action Day 2013 | How Can YOU Help?

Blog Action Day is a one-day international event that brings thousands of bloggers together to talk about an important issue. Throughout Blog Action Day, participants help raise awareness and money for charities and social causes. This year I'm blogging on behalf of Samaritan's Purse.

The focus of Blog Action Day 2013 is on human rights. Samaritan's Purse would like to draw attention to the crisis situation in Sudan and South Sudan that has been caused by brutal human rights violations carried out by the Sudanese government and its president, Omar al-Bashir.

This is the third of three posts today to bring awareness to this situation. If you missed the previous posts, you can read them here and here.

The Underlying Problem

The root of the refugee crisis is ongoing government-sponsored violence against Sudanese citizens. While Samaritan’s Purse is committed to meeting the urgent needs of refugees, the underlying problem can only be addressed with broader issues of governance and constitutionality. We encourage Christians to:

• Pray for the violence to end and for comprehensive peace for all of Sudan. 
• Give as God calls to help meet the needs of displaced people living in South Sudan. 
• Spread the word to raise awareness of the problem and encourage others to get involved.

Ways You Can Help

Here are some of the areas that need your prayer and support ...
 

Displacement

• The Need: Approximately 190,000 refugees populate camps in northern South Sudan. These refugees fled across the border as Sudan’s government troops conducted aerial bombings, ground raids, and orchestrated famine – atrocities that continue to this day. 
• The Response: Samaritan’s Purse works with partners inside the refugee camps to meet basic needs in Jesus’ Name, including food, water, and medical care.

Hunger

• The Need: Many children arrive in the refugee camps suffering from moderate and severe acute malnutrition. Families cannot provide food for themselves because the violence forced them to leave their farmland.  
• The Response: Samaritan’s Purse screens and treats children for moderate to severe acute malnutrition with outpatient therapeutic feeding programs. We partner with the World Food Programme to conduct routine food distributions inside the camps.

Scarce Medical Care

• The Need: Bunj Hospital is the only healthcare provider to offer specialized surgical care, at-risk childbirth intervention, and life-saving nutritional programs in Maban County, a large border region in northern South Sudan.
• The Response: Samaritan’s Purse began operating Bunj Hospital, in partnership with the UN High Council on Refugees, in January 2012, and since then more than 600 life-saving surgeries have been performed. We are currently expanding to meet increasing demand.

Lack of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

• The Need: Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene is always a challenge in refugee situations.  
• The Response: Samaritan's Purse supplies the majority of clean water access in Yida refugee camp. In August, we produced approximately 13,605,000 liters of water, built 173 latrines, and trained 1,900 people in health and hygiene.

If you would like to contribute financially to the ministry of Samaritan's Purse as they assist in meeting needs in Sudan and South Sudan, you can donate here.