"We came with nothing." How a mother found dignity and relief in Sudan

“We arrived with nothing but the clothes on our backs. No money, no soap, not even containers to store water,” said 43-year-old Fatima Adam Suleiman, who fled armed clashes in At Tadamon locality, in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, in December 2023. Fatima and her five children fled their home with no belongings. They made the difficult 20 km journey mostly on foot to Ed Damazine, the state capital, in search of safety.

They found temporary shelter at a school turned reception centre set up by the Government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission. Families were arriving in waves from different parts of the country – Aj Jazirah, At Tadamon, Khartoum and Sennar states – all fleeing the violence that has gripped Sudan since April 2023.

Ed Damazine’s already overstretched health and sanitation systems were pushed to the brink. Overcrowded shelters, lack of basic supplies and the looming threat of disease made life even harder for displaced families. 

A lifeline arrives

In January 2024, World Vision International, with support from the OCHA-managed Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF), and in partnership with the national non-governmental organization Al Salam Organization for Rehabilitation and Development, launched a project to support 350 displaced families from At Tadamon. By the year’s end, nearly 1,800 people had received vital aid, including hygiene kits, jerrycans, soap, buckets and child-sized potties. 

For Fatima, the aid was not only life-saving; it also offered a sense of dignity and privacy to her as a woman.

She explained: “Now I can fetch and store water in the two jerrycans they gave me. They also gifted me a beautiful thobe [ankle-length robe]. I wear it proudly, and at night I use it to cover my two youngest children to keep them warm.”

Since the conflict began in April 2023, the SHF has significantly scaled up its support to address the urgent and growing humanitarian needs across the country. In 2024 the fund disbursed US$208 million to deliver life-saving assistance to more than 12.1 million people, including access to safe drinking water, essential healthcare, nutrition services and protection for the most vulnerable communities.

In 2024, European Union’s US$4.3 million contribution to the SHF, enabled humanitarian partners to deliver vital aid to people affected by conflict in Sudan.