The Marshall Scholar Class of 2006 will partner with the London-based NGO Kids for Kids to “adopt” the village of Kerkera, volunteering and raising the funds to provide necessary assistance in a holistic and sustainable intervention, and raising awareness in England and the United States of the political and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Our partner, Kids for Kids, brings over five years’ experience working in the villages of Darfur, with programs currently underway in twenty-one conflict-affected villages in northern Darfur and plans to expand to an additional ten villages in 2007. The Marshall Scholars’ partnership with Kerkera will enable the first of those villages to begin receiving support according to the comprehensive assistance plan outlined below. Under the partnership, the Marshall Scholars will seek to:

• Raise the estimated £22,500 ($45,000) required to implement the comprehensive assistance plan (including livestock, medical training, and agriculture support) developed by Kids for Kids
• Raise awareness in the U.S. and U.K. of the vital need for foreign assistance faced (today and into the future) by Kerkera and hundreds of similar villages across the Darfur region of Sudan
• Lobby British and American government officials for concerted diplomatic action to resolve the political conflict and hold the Sudanese government to account for the atrocities in Darfur
• Visit and volunteer in Kerkera, security conditions permitting, in order to assist Kids for Kids in implementing the plan.

The project is based on the simple premise that political engagement and a political solution, as vital as they are today to ending the violence, will not restore basic welfare to the people of Darfur. With hundreds of villages destroyed, wells poisoned or bombed, livestock lost to famine and drought, and a lack of basic subsistence needs in many villages today, the life pros-pects for Darfurians in the eventual aftermath of the con-flict are grim. Holistic interven-tion which provides for basic necessities over the long term while building human capacity and supporting good governance in the villages is requireed if Darfur is to subsist today and move forward in the future. Such efforts begin one village at a time.