Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story

Church World Service Celebrates World Food Day with a Focus on the "Dear Sudan" Campaign

Asha Khatir and her four children fled their village following a series of attacks. "Our village was attacked and all the houses burned. I saw six bodies, but we didn't have time to see who they were or whether there were more people killed." Photo: copyright WFP/Laura Melo

October 13, 2005

"I really feel in my heart that we are going to be able to save thousands of lives," said Tim Nonn, a Petaluma, California-based editor and father of a six-year old son. After feeling the pain of seeing malnourished children in Sudan die in their parents' arms, Nonn wrote a letter beginning, "Dear Sudan," committing his community, Petaluma, to raise enough funds to feed for one day the number of Sudanese refugees equivalent to the Bay area town's population -- about 55,000 people. The grassroots campaign surpassed its original goal by about $4,000.

The "Dear Sudan" campaign grew into a national, interfaith campaign sponsored by Church World Service and several CWS member denominations, including the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and The United Methodist Church. "Dear Sudan" has also been endorsed by American Jewish World Service.

"We applaud this creative, grassroots effort and urge communities across the country to join in," says Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director of Church World Service. The goal is to raise money for food and medicine for displaced Sudanese, as well as educate people about the situation in Sudan and encourage people to write their representatives in Congress urging action to stop the government-sponsored attacks in the Darfur region of western Sudan, which the U.S. government has declared to be genocide. Information on responding to the Sudan crisis is available on the Church World Service website (http://www.churchworldservice.org/news/Sudan/).

Church World Service is urging people to observe World Food Day, October 16, by participating in the "Dear Sudan" Campaign (www.dearsudan.org) – and by supporting their local CROP WALK, the community fundraising appeal of CWS that helps alleviate hunger and poverty locally and globally.

World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 in over 150 countries to mark the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. World Food Day aims to heighten public awareness of the plight of the world’s hungry and malnourished and to encourage people worldwide to take action against hunger.

Participating in the "Dear Sudan" Campaign is also a way to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal to reduce child mortality. Nearly 11 million children die every year, most from preventable causes. Underlying most of this mortality is malnutrition, which contributes to more than half of all child deaths. (Read more about the Millennium Development Goals)

In the wake of a peace accord in the Sudan’s 21-year-old North-South war, some of the more than four million displaced Sudanese are now traveling from camps in the North to the South, most without any means of assistance or support. Food supplies are inadequate, and the infrastructure in the South was decimated.

In a coalition effort, Church World Service is helping to provide food, medicines, water and sanitation, agricultural inputs and tools, and counseling to some of the most vulnerable of the uprooted people in the Darfur. The program includes a supplemental feeding program for malnourished children. And, in southern Sudan, Church World Service is helping to support humanitarian assistance in areas where returnees need help now – by providing basic health services, seeds, tools, water and sanitation assistance, and strengthening livelihood options, such as fishing.

Contributions may be sent to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515, attention "Dear Sudan." Credit card contributions can be made online, or by calling 800-297-1516, ext. 222. To find out about the CROP WALK nearest you, please call toll-free 888-cws-crop (888-297-2767).

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story