Assistance to Spontaneous Returnees

Balance Requested from ACT Alliance: US$ 7,380,341

Please find enclosed the revision of ACT appeal AFSD51 which includes the appeal from the Lutheran World Federation Uganda/Sudan program. On January 10, 2005, the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) thereby ending a decades-long civil war in southern Sudan. This break-through opens the door to the voluntary repatriation of some 500,000 Sudanese refugees now residing in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the DRC and other neighboring countries.

The long civil war has laid waste to much infrastructure in southern Sudan, including roads, schools, and health facilities. UNHCR, other international organizations, Churches on the ground, and NGOs have begun to reestablish these facilities and basic services, but much more is required to make the region conducive to the sustainable return of refugees and other displaced persons.

This appeal will help integrate returnees and support return communities and the internally displaced. The projects are aiming to anchor returnees in Sudan, enable communities to support refugees who have returned home, and build capacity to absorb additional returnees in these communities in Southern Sudan.

ACT implementing members Church Ecumenical Action in Sudan (CEAS), Norwegian Church Aid/Sudan Programme (NCA/SP), and the Lutheran World Federation Uganda/Sudan program (LWF) will collaborate and co-oordinate project activities with local partners and dioceses in Southern Sudan in areas where returnees are expected to return. The Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) appeal is currently kept on hold and is therefore not included in this revision.

Project Completion Date:

CEAS: 30 April 2006
NCA: 31 May 2006
LWF: 31 August 2006

Summary of Appeal Targets, Pledges/Contributions Received and Balance Requested