Following the announcement of a grant of $400,000 (£180,918) from the Canadian International Development Agency, World Vision will be increasing its support to children and their families in Darfur, Sudan.
World Vision will add an additional $133,000 (£60,151) from individual Canadian donations to begin a new water project.
"Children and their families in Darfur must receive the basics for survival," says Emmanuel Isch, Vice-President of International and Canadian Programs for World Vision. "Securing access to clean drinking water is critical for the people in camps in Southern Sudan. This project brings a glimmer of hope for those fleeing from conflict."
The project is part of World Vision's wider response in the Darfur region, where the agency has worked for the last two years.
"We plan to rehabilitate more than 56 boreholes and wells, and train local committees to manage and maintain these sources of water," added Isch, who will visit several camps in Darfur in the next week. "This project will help more than 66,000 people including displaced families and local community members who are hosting them on their land."
3 million people have been forced from their homes by the conflict between the Sudanese government and rebel movements in Darfur that started in February 2003, according to the latest United Nations figures.
World Vision runs extensive programmes in Darfur including emergency relief such as food aid, water and sanitation, provision of child-friendly spaces, primary healthcare camp inhabitants especially pregnant women and children, training for teachers and providing school supplies for children, and training for farmers in agriculture and natural resource management.
The agency is one of the World Food Programme's main implementing partners in Darfur and has distributed monthly food rations to more than 220,000 internally displaced people in more than 20 Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps and conflict-affected areas.
Work has also measurably reduced malnutrition rates through supplementary feeding for 5,000 children in seven camps in the Darfur area.
World Vision began operations in Northern Sudan in 1972, and continued until 1989 when the organisation shifted its focus to the south, where it has served since 1983. The agency has worked in Darfur since 2004.
