InterAction President & CEO Sam Worthington in visiting humanitarian workers in Sudan. Follow along as he posts diary entries and shares photos from along his trip.
February 24, 2008 – Khartoum, Sudan
 Tomorrow I get on a UN flight to witness the world’s largest and most sustained humanitarian intervention. Getting permission to travel is a bit of roulette, dependent on how many slots on the UN plane, but most of all on the will of the Sudanese Government. We have mixed success. I fly out at 0900, Judith at 1100, and our other colleague will unfortunately remain stuck in Khartoum. So much for keeping our team together.
In Darfur, 13,000 humanitarian workers keep over 2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) alive. They work through 80 international NGOs and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and a massive UN humanitarian presence with agencies from UNHCR and UNICEF to the World Food Program (WFP). Operationally, beyond the obvious need for funding and security, two things make this humanitarian effort possible; the first is the incredible professionalism of the various NGO staffs and their leadership (to work here you simply have to know what you are doing), and the second is not too glamorous, you need lots and lots of coordination. Humanitarian work in Darfur is run on meetings, e-mails and phone calls.
 Starting last night, and through all of today, I spent 12 hours with the in-country leadership of key humanitarian actors on the ground in Darfur: Relief International, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, International Medical Corps (IMC), Save the Children US, International Rescue Committee (IRC), World Vision, Concern, GOAL, Oxfam, MedAid, the ICRC, UN and USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). A lot of meetings to explore how this incredible humanitarian effort works, what keeps it going, and what stresses might cause it to fall apart. These are professional organizations among many others working here with a major mission on their hands. The UN recognizes that about 70% of the work on the ground in Darfur is handled by NGOs. And for international NGOs everyday is an uphill battle.
The typical effective length of stay for a humanitarian worker in Darfur is between 1 to 2 years max. The year break itself into cycles, with many international staff spending 10 weeks in the field, a short R&R out, and to return for another 10 weeks. In this continuous cycle all depends on getting a travel permit. When in Darfur, the workdays tend to go on forever with the occasional midnight e-mail read by the country office. Some stress is obvious. There is a lack of security, colleagues are attacked, sometimes killed, and vehicles are robbed. Other stressors are more insidious, a request to leave to go home to bury a father or simply visit family is denied, communal living takes its toll, the work never ends, the efforts of the past year are erased by a combat operation, staff vacancies can’t be filled, and time takes its toll, slowly breaking down the hardiest soul.
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“I’ve reached the end of my useful life on the ground,” commented an experienced relief worker after two years in Geneina. Many of the world’s most experienced humanitarian workers covered the first 2-3 years of the Darfur crisis. Now in its fourth year recruitment has become a challenge. Darfur is not the ideal place for a first humanitarian tour. For some, after a year it is time to move on with a tour in Darfur checked off to complete a resume. You can’t blame them.
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