Since peace returned to southern Sudan in 2005, humanitarian agency ADRA has received thousands of Sudanese returnees through their way stations found in six locations, including remote Nasir and Pagak.
Countless thousands of Sudanese people fled the violence and horror of the long-lasting civil war, becoming internally displaced within their own country, but many more fleeing across the borders.
Mission Aviation Fellowship is a lifeline to ADRA’s work by flying workers and supplies to their remote outposts.
Essential guidance
ADRA worker Mai Terawaki is a regular MAF passenger. She writes, ‘We appreciate the usual co-operation and service of MAF as we are operating in remote areas such as Nasir and Pagak receiving Sudanese refugees at our way stations.’
ADRA’s way stations provide health screening, mine education, plastic sheets, pots and mosquito nets to the returnees when they arrive. They are also dispatched with three months of food rations.
Overcoming challenges
Five years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ADRA’s strategy is changing. Mai explains, ‘As refugee arrivals have reduced over the past years, we are now working for the reintegration and resettlement of the returnees.’
Most returnees have lost all their belongings and livelihoods, and so face a challenge in rehabilitating back to a normal way of life. ADRA seeks to offer support to help overcome those challenges – which range from food production and earning a living, to education and healthcare.
‘In Nasir, ADRA is implementing HIV/AIDS awareness and hygiene and sanitation activities,’ continues Mai. ‘We train schoolteachers and community health workers in HIV/AIDS, conduct outreach health education sessions in the villages, clinics and cattle camps.’
‘The activities in Pagak are mainly to improve capacity in food production and income generation. We aim to support the high return areas with knowledge and capacity in improving their own lives.’
Holistic help
ADRA delivers sustainable and holistic care to bring a better quality of life to the vulnerable across southern Sudan. In addition to their projects rehabilitating refugees, they have projects in healthcare, water, basic education, and economic and community development.
One recent flight from Juba carried a toolbox weighing 120kg and building materials to Mabior and Kapoeta, in addition to the passengers. The flight was also carrying a mother with her newborn baby for medical treatment.