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AFRICA - Aid Worker Ingrid Macdonald asks people to imagine what it would be like if every single person in New Zealand was so terribly affected by conflict and violence that they had to depend on aid agencies for things as basic as water, food and sanitation.
"Imagine if more than half of them were forced to flee their homes - that's the enormity of the suffering that we're seeing right now in Darfur," says Macdonald, a New Zealander who grew up in Waiuku and who now works for Oxfam in Sudan.
"The conflict, which is now spreading from Darfur into Chad and the Central African Republic as well, is the greatest concentration of human suffering in the world.
"After four years of conflict, there are nearly two and a half million displaced people in Darfur, and four million now have to rely on support from organisations like Oxfam.
"Working here and trying to comprehend what is happening sometimes feels impossible.
"Some of the camps where people displaced by the conflict are now sheltering are the size of Dunedin or Tauranga.
"The people there tell stories of such violence and horror that I cannot even begin to imagine what they have been through. And more continue to arrive - thirsty, exhausted and traumatised.
"Oxfam is providing about 500,000 such people with lifesaving clean water, safe toilets and sanitation systems, and educating them about hygiene practices to try to control diseases like malaria and cholera.
"Such diseases can spread extremely quickly in such large, crowded camps - and adequate water and basic sanitation are two things that can really save lives.
"Oxfam has staff carrying out this work in camps throughout Darfur and Chad. One of those camps is Habile, in eastern Chad, where Don McCullin took these photographs."
McCullin was commissioned by Oxfam to work in the refugee camps. Regarded as one of the world's greatest war photographers, he has covered conflicts throughout the world since the 1960s. His images are so painful that the British Government refused to let him cover the Falklands war.
"The images are haunting," Macdonald says of McCullin's work. "It's one thing to hear about a woman whose village was burned, whose brother was killed and who walked 85km to get to relative safety while survivors died of thirst around her.
"It's another thing to see that story etched on her face - 85km, with no food and hardly any water, urging your young children to keep walking and having to leave them dead on the roadside if they can't. It's hard to comprehend.
"It is people like her that Oxfam is trying to help - and people like Magda, a 23-year-old mother who arrived in the South Darfur camp of Kalma with only her children and the clothes she was wearing.
"She described how her village was attacked and burned to the ground and her husband and eldest son killed. She picked up her other children and ran, eventually reaching Kalma. Now Oxfam's staff in the camp are supplying her and thousands like her with toilets, water, blankets and shelter. Yet while our staff are providing such vital assistance, they are finding Darfur increasingly dangerous."
Almost every day there are hijackings, robberies, assaults and abductions of aid workers.
"If we are to continue helping people like Magda then we need all the various parties to the conflict to stop carrying out, or turning a blind eye, to such attacks on civilians and aid workers.
The New Zealand Government - as well as the rest of the international community - can play an important role in this by increasing the pressure on those responsible for the violence.
"Now four years old, the conflict is still raging. The people in the camps see no sign of improvement, no hope of returning to their homes. Unable to leave, dependent on outsiders for daily survival, they are desperate to regain the independence and human dignity that has been taken from them."
Oxfam is increasing its efforts to provide the opportunities for people to rebuild their livelihoods and reduce the reliance on aid.
"Our staff are training plumbers and carpenters, vets and brickmakers. We are helping set up small businesses inside the camps, and distributing seeds and farming tools."
* Oxfam aims to raise US$10 million internationally to continue its work in Chad. People can call 0800 600 700 any time; online oxfam.org.nz
