Sudan

HelpAge has helped thousands of older people in Sudan get free treatment at mobile eye clinics. Dominika Kronsteiner/HelpAge International 2011 We have worked with communities in Sudan for more than 20 years, focusing on older people's most pressing needs.

We now work in West Darfur and Khartoum and in 12 internally displaced people camps with people forced to flee their homes by the West Darfur conflict.

Here, we provide services such as:

• protection
• healthcare
• eye care
• shelter
• support for small businesses
• literacy training
• social activities.

We also work in providing work opportunities and income and food security.

How we've helped older people in Sudan

• 4,977 vulnerable older people accessed healthcare through our 34-strong donkey ambulance referral service, where donkeys and carts are used to transport older people to clinics. Working with 16 medical agencies, we make up to 1,000 referrals every month.
• In 2011, we will implement three mobile eye clinics in West and North Darfur targeting 10,800 people (1,800 through surgical operation and 9,000 through eye treatments). By June, we had conducted two eye camps in Zalingei and Kulbus reaching 12,645 people (1,139 surgeries and 11,506 treatments). A third one is planned for later this year.
• HelpAge also runs a nutrition programme for older people at high risk of falling into malnutrition and older people who are moderately malnourished. By March 2011, 3,942 extremely vulnerable older people received food baskets to prevent them from being malnourished while 8,727 were given supplementary food baskets to rehabilitate from malnourishment.
• So far, HelpAge has established 18 social centres which are attended by up to 1,800 people each month. The centres are busy and provide activities for older people such as literacy classes.

What next?

We will focus on a three-year project, which will:

• empower older people in the poorest areas of Khartoum,
• reduce poverty and increase quality of life among vulnerable older people in Sudan,
• target 500,000 poorer older people across four areas of the capital,
• improve their health and quality of life,
• increase their access to services and entitlements.

Our affiliates

The Sudanese Society in Care of Older People (SSCOP), South Sudan Older People's Organization (SSOPO)

Our partners

Sudan Red Crescent Society (SRCS)

Our donors

AgeUK, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), CAFOD, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID)