A Bake sales & a heart touching message of love from AIFS staff & students to the children of Yida refugee camp
on #Valentine Day!​

A big thank you to Ailsa Brookes, the Senior Vice President & Director of Programmes of the AIFS Study Abroad, the staff and Students, 
for coordinating a bake sales fundraiser in support of the work of Green Kordofan charity.
 The sales raised awesome £175.40 and then  matched by their Director to £350.80
A massive gratitude to Julie, Charlotte, Philippa and all those who participated!
​ You're all amazing!

It is the generous support of individuals like you makes it possible for our organization to exist and provide valuable support to children in a hard to reach places like Yida refugee camp in South Sudan.
 Thank you again for your support!

This year is full of events; here are some of the autumn highlights news of Green Kordofan charitable activities in South Sudan and fundraising activities in the UK.
I would like to take this opportunity to send a big thank you to all our supporters for their donations made our work possible and brought a lot of comfort for many distressed children there, thank you and wishing you all a merry Christmas. 

Waging Peace & Green Kordofan  trustee visit Yida
Sonja Miley, Green Kordofan trustee and Maddy Crowther of Waging Peace made a special trip to see the children at Yida camp in South Sudan.
 This is just happen only a few weeks before Christmas.
 Their visit were enormously welcomed by the children and the staff. 
 We will be sharing more about their visit soon.

 First here's a quick briefing note  from Sonja about the visit:
 
​" We are back and full of the enormity of our trip to Yida and South Sudan.
There is much to share .... about our interactions with the youth and staff of Green Kordofan. 
​The staffs are extra special people who have dedicated themselves to this project and to improving the quality of the lives of the children in Yida.
David, Noura, Issac, Zaki and Uncle Yousif and of course Alhadi in Juba are doing a fantastic job!". 

At Yida campsite they visited the Green Kordofan compound, met  the children,staff,volunteers,and the camp chairman. 
 They had the kids singing and dancing,watched footballs, played volleyball with the girls and about 3000 people turned out to see their activities!
Come back here later to learn more about their visit.

 the children and staff paid tribute to Raga's late father and Mark Warham.

There's so much to share about this trip as mentioned above and will certainly going to share more with you here.
Some information about the camp:
Yida refugee  camp size is vast, about 3 square meters
 Current statistic of the refugees is over 54000 people.

Thanks to all of you who supported Green Kordofan team at both Folkestone 10K and the Half marathon in 2018. The line is now open for registration for 2019.
Remember to choose Green Kordofan as the charity you support and enter online at www.runnersworld.co.uk/events or download an entry form from our website www.folkestonerotary.org“.
​ You can also Fundraise for us.

​This award is for the team and players who persevere to overcome obstacles and challenges, hurdles and setbacks but strive to keep going forward with courage, dignity, strength and a sense of adventure and fun! Mount Everest on the Asian continent is the highest mountain in the world. Even taller than the Nuba Mountains in Africa!
All participants of the UK charity project Green Kordofan in Yida are eligible for this prestigious award. Whether in volleyball or football, trophies will be awarded on a rotational basis to the best female and male players and the best female and male teams with an opportunity for the overall best team to share the Mark Warham Everest cup! 

​Mark Warham was a great supporter of Green Kordofan and the young people in Yida. We hope Mark’s legacy will inspire each young person to reach for his or her goals and know their value. We hope each and every young person will know their internal strength, resilience and be reminded to keep going to achieve what they want.

Here is Mark’s story…
Mark Warham was born in 1962 in the North of England. When he was 12 he was in a very bad bus accident.  He was in hospital and nearly lost his leg, but after many operations he was able to keep it.  He was told not to play any sport. Mark did well in school and won a place at Oxford University. Through his teenage years he started climbing with his three brothers, firstly on the rocks around his home and then in Scotland on snow and ice.  Later he completed several trips to Europe and Nepal to climb various mountains and finally decided he would like to climb Everest. The first time he suffered very seriously from the altitude and had to come down quickly in order to survive. However he was determined to try again and he returned five years later in 1997, this time succeeding.  He was the thirtieth Briton to climb Everest.
Two months later he met Olivia and since then he focused his energies on his family and his career. They had three children and lived in London. In February 2017, Mark was diagnosed with throat cancer and died in April 2018.
​

Mark was determined from a young age and didn't let his terrible accident stop him achieving his goal. He also realised that one go wasn't enough but set out a second time. He reached the summit because of his focus and courage. He shows you that you can reach your goal if you keep trying and don't give up, no matter how hard it seems. 

Al-hadi Hassan- Green Kordofan Logistic assistance made a 5 day visit to Yida and Adjoung refugees’ camps in South Sudan

The which start at November 11th - 15th ) set to provide technical support to fieldworkers at campsites (staff & volunteers), deliver goods, assess the situation there and explore opportunities. See some image.

 He interviewed some of the people, who benefit from Green Kordofan’s work in South Sudan and received important  feedback from staff, volunteers and other partners in the grounds.

​While there Alhadi met Mr Mubarak Boils Tutu the refugee’s camp manger of Yida, Ajoung thok and Pamir at his office in Yida. They both later enjoyed watching a match between Alawa soba FC Raja on the 13/11/2018.

 Mr. Bolis is a big fan of Green Kordofan children activities and regular attend  matches and events that organized by the charity.

Here's his testimony about the activities:
He said, “ Sports gradually heals the trauma case, creates interactions and unity among kids and people as well,  acts in the development of talents and as such he will fully give support Green Kordofan and encourage them to expand and include other camp such as Pamir,  Ajoung thok and even to Nuba mountains as well". 

We are very touched by the level of support that offered to our staff during his visit from  NGOs Staff in the ground, we thank you so much.
 Keep giving, you are all brilliant!

Al Hadi met other NGOs staff in Yida and witness the signing of a grant to provide education to one of our youngster which featured in one of our stories before. the child and and her auntie needs all the support they can and we are so pleased  that the Persecution Project Foundation [ PPF] is helping now. 
We hope our stories increase more empathy and understanding to situation of the children and people in the camps and that basic needs such as water, health and education become more accessible to all. 
Thank you PPF for being a great support!

We will share some of the interviews with you soon and more stories from Green Kordofan’s work in South Sudan soon.
​

 A big thanks to all our donors who made this visit possible and continue to support our work to reach children in needs in very remote and hard to access areas, thank you.

Goods arrival! 

 ​Shipment of donated sportkit and quality footwear from West Sussex FC, Brighton & Hove arrived in South Sudan. We also received gorgeous t-shirts and PE clothing from Ashlyns School, AD ALTA, Niki for children of all age.
​Huge appreciation for the donation of £2,255 made by Mr & Mrs Souter which made this possible.

​A big thank you to our partners Goods for good and Sussex for Africa for their great part in networking and making this brilliant quality of clothing and footwear accessible for our charity.

Thanks also to all our wonderful volunteers who assisted with transporting the goods locally from Sussex to Kent and with the packaging, you are all amazing people!
 We are delighted to announce to you that your handwork have paid off and the first loads  already arrived at the campsite. 
Please tune in here for more news from the campsite soon.

 Donations made to the project make it possible for us to support our staff and volunteers in the campsite and pay our few expenses here.
You can make a contribution to the cause by donating here, thank you.

 As part of our Peace Day celebration we ran several interviews with our beneficiaries, and  we shall share some of them here with you. I would like first to give credit to Mr. Lallu Osman  Daud (Child Protection Officer for UNHCR) for his assistance with this interview.
 
 My sincere thanks to each participant,for sharing their stories and their often horrific journeys with us. Some are still trying to make sense of their new situation. Here is our first interviewee:

 Robaka lives with her aunty Samira in Yida refugee camp. 
 The pictures below show her everyday activities and some of her sporting experiences with Green Kordofan.

Interview transcript :
​Robaka says,​ ' I ran from Talodi on the 30/12/2011 because of the war, we spent one week in the forest, my father died and my mother went to Khartoum in search of work.
​Lowering her head she muttered, 'I live here alone with my auntie Samira'. 

Samira: ‘I took responsibility for my niece to relieve my brother who struggled to look after the little girl'.  
Attempting a smile, she added ' You know, men don’t know how to look after little children'. 

She then continued, 'Robaka’s father died, which is sad, and her mother struggled.She sought the support of my brother and asked him to look after her children so she could go and find work in Khartoum.  He then asked me to look after the girl.
We never heard from her again!'

 The Interviewer then turned to the young girl and asked her if she was enrolled in  a school.
​ Robcca replied, '​ I love to learn but I can’t afford to pay my school fees.
​When I heard that the coach of Green Kordofan was registering girls for sports,
I immediately went and signed up for Green Kordofan and I'm really grateful to the people who are supporting me.'

Samira and her niece  refer to  last day  in Talodi as 'the day of  Doom' or 'the ruins of Talodi'  (Youm Al-kharab).  
We respected their wish not to talk about it.
​
The terror of the bombing of Talodi in December 2011 forced  thousands to flee ; hundreds  were reportedly killed in this action. It left many people like Samira still battling with their feelings of loss.

Despite their sadness we were amazed by the young girl's resilience and her enthusiasm in the playground. ​Below are  some  photos of her with her play mates.

​Background:
The  assault on Talodi reportedly killed hundreds of people, thousands were displaced.Those who managed to escape still refer to it as the Day of Doom.

For further links concerning the assault on Talodi -  See BBC report at:
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15529551

Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sudan/9177672/Sudan-accuses-South-Sudan-of-backing-armed-rebel-groups.html

   You can also see George Clooney's  remarks on the issue in October 2010:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sudan/8061480/George-Clooney-90-days-from-disaster-in-Sudan.html

 Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. You can also support our work in Yida, by donation, by sponsoring our Events, by Clicking here to get involved and help us reach more children.  

A big thank you to the donors and fundraisers who have made this work possible. whether its big things or small touches. it makes a lot of different,Thanks

We are delighted to announce that our staff received the new motorcycle.
We would like to say a big thank you to Morag and John for their generous donation of £1100 which enabled us to give this gift to our staff in Yida refugee’s camp, See picture above.
Our sincere appreciations to all dedicated staff and volunteers who helped us negotiate paperwork and transporting of bike to Yida.
We commend all your brilliant efforts! 

​

 Most of our work done on voluntarily capacity, your donation towards transporting of goods will be much appreciated,
​ Please a spare a cup of coffee cost of £2.50 per month to support our work and help us send clothing, shoes and sports equipment, click Donate now.

Green Kordofan enjoyed a Fun Day at Terra Amata farm in West Chiltingon on 4th of August where we met and learnt about other charities who support Africa. Thanks to Ben for organizing such wonderful event and all his fantastic efforts.  See some photos below

 The event was well supported by our friends from RT walk and Folkestone who travelled the distance to help, thanks a lot, if you missed the event and still like to help  ​Click Donate here.
Regular income for the charity helps it plan easily and keeps its administrative cost to minimum,a little contribution can make a big difference, click here for regular support or contact us for more information.  

​

Why we fundraise?
Internal displacement as a result of conflict made thousands of children very vulnerable to manipulation and abuse, abduction of children has been a feature of intercommunal violence, see report here, see link: 
​https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-southsudan-child-soldiers/children-recount-trauma-of-abduction-after-mass-release-by-south-sudan-rebels-idUKKBN1FR2ZJ

The overarching goal of this project is to contribute to peace and development for the peoples of South Kordofan. 
The project is about more than football. It provides discipline and structure for at-risk youth who lack alternative life chances except joining military movements. The normal development of young people's relationships and motivations has been dislocated by the conflict and this project creates a safe and structured space for them to work in teams, build trust, generate self-confidence, win respect and channel ambitions through constructive cooperative activity. It will also improve tense relationships with the local host communities through increased social interaction.
​
The project also alleviates pressure on guardians and mothers, most of who are single women (most men are elsewhere pursuing economic opportunities, fighting in war, or they have been killed). These women put the interests of children ahead of their own, and would benefit hugely if their youth were engaged in constructive activities.
Please get in touch if you would like to help in anyway, click donate 
Our fundraising is so essential to provide equipment,clothing and mentoring programme to young people.

​Green Kordofan would like to say a big thank you to Morag and John for their generous gift of a brand new TVS star HLX motorcycle which purchased locally from Doshi Motors limited in Juba, South Sudan.
 

Boys and girls continued to take part in the two day "introduction to running" programme, warming up for the main events. 

Children practicing track running with great support from their peers. 

On your marks, get set, Go!

If your school, child is interested in becoming a Run Pal, why don't you get in touch and find out how you can get involved?

 Drawings of some favorite action shots by the children of our Yida football teams.

Thanks to Olivia Warham for sending off the donated School uniforms from Harrodian school, arrived in the camp on 3rd May 2018.

Below children wearing the new donated School uniforms