Healing Bridges (www.healingbridges.org)

Many of these beloved people have been in these refugee camps for 20 to 30 years or more. The UN calls them the forgotten refugees.   There is little hope for them of integration in Sudan, and returning home is not an option for many reasons. Although it’s a profoundly beautiful and humbling thing to see the joy in these peoples faces no matter the hardships they face, life in the refugee camps is inconceivably challenging.

There is no clean water because the well pumps don’t work, so they fetch dirty water out of a stream about an hour away, its unsanitary and there have been cholera outbreaks because of it. Food is a sporadic thing for most of the people, they are thin and we saw several babies with malnutrition in the hospitals.

There is little in the way of health care, the clinics do not have what they need in terms of drugs or equipment and most people are unable to afford the price of prescriptions. We met several doctors who were practically in tears sharing with us about the current situation. Their hearts are often moved to pay for prescription drugs for some of their patients out of their own meagre wages, especially the mothers with sick babies.  Most of the schools have bare dirt rubble strewn floors with no desks, and currently they have to pay for education for their children beyond 5th grade, which no one can afford.

Healing Bridges is working to help the Eritrean refugees stand on their own feet economically, with renewed dignity, self worth and a regained sense of hope.

Their mission is to provide wells for clean drinking water, education for the children and help their mothers to be financially self-sustained through micro loans. Visit the Healing Bridges website for more information and to make a donation: www.healingbridges.org