Daryn Kobata (right), the editor of Caltech 336, is taking a leave of absence to work as a communications officer for an international humanitarian aid project in Darfur, Sudan.

“Four-wheel-drive vehicles compete for bumpy, rocky dirt roads with people in traditional Muslim garments riding donkeys. We get our water each day from boys with donkeys, and only have electricity a few evenings each week—the rest of the time we’re on a generator.”

This description of daily life was written by Daryn Kobata, editor of 336, who has taken a temporary assignment as communications officer for an international humanitarian aid project in the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan.

Kobata is on a leave of absence to work for the World Relief Darfur Relief Collaboration (DRC), a consortium of six relief and development agencies. They aim to provide food, water, and other help (in coordination with the United Nations) to villagers displaced by ongoing ethnic conflict.

World Relief DRC provides medical care, food, water wells, and latrines to people who live in refugee camps and outlying villages. Other goals include providing health education and training in building fuel-efficient stoves, and helping restock depleted seed supplies.

“Given the situation—an ethnic bush war in an area of Africa with almost no infrastructure—things could be better, but also could be worse,” Kobata writes in an e-mail. “Since I landed in El Geneina (capital of West Darfur state) on February 14, things have been fairly calm. However, since the conflict’s beginning almost two years ago, close to 1.2 million people have fled their home areas, and of that number West Darfur has absorbed about 650,000. Small towns and villages that already struggle with lack of water, food, health care, and other resources have become overwhelmed. And when you have that many people concentrated in a small area with no sanitation facilities, you start seeing a lot of disease.”

The political backdrop: Since early 2003, rebel groups have attacked Sudanese government military targets in the western region of Darfur, in northeast Africa. The rebels claim that the government favors Arab Muslims and oppresses non-Arab people, and existing ethnic tensions are heightened by disputes over land ownership and grazing rights.

As communications officer for the project, Kobata will report to project donors and the home office of World Relief, a Baltimore-based Christian relief organization. She also expects to be attending meetings with UN officials, other humanitarian agencies, and government representatives.

“While there’s still a lot of need—and the UN is forecasting more food shortages in the coming months—we’re also seeing good things happen. Things that seem very simple, like fixing broken water pumps, distributing seeds, or digging a latrine are making a big difference in helping people stay healthy and have enough to eat.”

Kobata says a project worker whose primary job is agricultural translation scored a recent victory by diagnosing and treating an outbreak of fowl typhoid that threatened local chicken flocks. “People in rural villages are dependent on their animals and chickens for food and to make a living, so the situation was pretty serious.”

Kobata, who has served as editor of 336 since its inception in January 2001, will maintain a weblog about her experiences, which will be posted periodically on Caltech Today at http://today.caltech.edu/pr/sudan.tcl. A description of the project can be found at www.wr.org/ourwork/whatwedo/disasterresponse.asp by clicking on Chad/Sudan.
•