The IRC and Qatar Charity Partner to Expand Vital Health, Water, Hygiene, and Sanitation Services in Sudan

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) in partnership with Qatar Charity has launched a new integrated humanitarian response service program for vulnerable communities in the Blue Nile State of Sudan. The program will run for six months, serving over 8,000 hard-to-reach refugee, host, and internally displaced communities in Wad al Mahi and Ar Rusayris localities. It aims to expand their access to improved health, water, hygiene and sanitation services. 

According to a needs assessment conducted by REACH in 2021, over 70% of households in the Blue Nile State have unmet health needs, with 90% of households reporting barriers in accessing vital healthcare services. This is because of inadequate infrastructure in health centers like cold chain facilities for drug and vaccine storage, and lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities which causes water-borne diseases. 

Eatizaz Yousif, the IRC Sudan Country Manager said:  

Mr. Mana Al-Ansari, Field offices Affairs Department Manager at Qatar Charity, expressed his delight with the partnership between Qatar Charity and IRC to launch the humanitarian response service program for the vulnerable communities.

He emphasized the keenness of Qatar Charity to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable communities in Sudan to meet their essential needs and ease their humanitarian suffering. He also hoped for the continued cooperation with IRC in the future to serve the refugees, IDPs, and the underprivileged.

The new initiative will rehabilitate water systems, install solar powered water pumps, and distribute basic hygiene kits in the community. It will rehabilitate medical warehouses in two IRC-supported health facilities, install medicine refrigerators, and provide a fully equipped ambulance to serve the rural community in facilitating medical emergencies and referrals.  The initiative will complement the existing United States Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance funded WASH-Health integrated response in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Water, Environmental Health Unit, and the Humanitarian Aid Commission in Blue Nile state. 

This is the first collaboration between Qatar Charity and the IRC in Sudan and is part of a new multifaceted collaboration that aims to alleviate the suffering of refugees and displaced populations living in conflict areas, protracted humanitarian crises, and locations impacted by natural disasters worldwide. 

To learn more about the program, please contact: 
IRC: [email protected] / [email protected] 

Qatar Charity: [email protected]  

About the IRC in Sudan 

The IRC has a main office in Khartoum with three sub field offices in El-Gadarif, Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. In Sudan, the IRC supports people impacted by conflict and crisis, including women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, refugees, mixed populations and host communities. We provide an integrated health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene program that maintains basic service provision while actively working to increase local capacity to sustain the service provision. The IRC also provides child protection services and comprehensive women and girls’ protection and empowerment services including gender-based violence survivors. 

About Qatar Charity in Sudan

Qatar Charity is an NGO founded in 1992. It operates through its field offices in more than 34 countries and implementing partners in 20 others. Throughout the past five years, Qatar Charity reached 29 million beneficiaries through large scale humanitarian and development projects with a total cost of 1.2 billion US Dollars. QC began projects in Sudan in the early 1990s in partnership with local organizations. In 1994, QC registered and opened its office in Khartoum, to contribute to sustainable development, provide support and relief to underprivileged and affected communities. The office is one of the organization’s earliest and most prominent offices.