Olympic ice-skating champion pleads UN’s case for Sudan’s displaced children

Forsaking the air-conditioned cool of the ice rink for the torrid heat of Sudan, Norwegian Olympic speed-skating champion Johann Koss is visiting camps for the displaced, schools and clinics to plead the case for youngsters in Africa’s largest country as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“The time for us to act is now, before it is too late. These children should be protected and have access to a good education, better living conditions and sanitation,”

the four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner said on a visit to El Fateh camp on the outskirts of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where crude huts dotting the arid landscape are home to more than 100,000 displaced people.

“Basically they have nothing. There is no school, there is no health and there is very little care of the children in this community,” Mr. Koss, whose five-day visit ends today, added. “We have to increase the number of health clinics and nurses so they can be treated for very preventable diseases, so they can survive.”

Due to years of conflict and drought in Sudan, an estimated 2 million displaced people are living in camps similar to El Fateh. Having been driven off their land, they now depend on food aid. But a lack of donor funding is hampering humanitarian efforts, and the response to the needs of internally displaced families has been uneven.

Many relief agencies and non-governmental organizations have been pulling out due to the shortfall in funding as well as pressure from some local officials. UNICEF and its partners continue to provide food, water and medicine to support the displaced families, who are among the most vulnerable in the world.

Appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1994, Mr. Koss also visited water points, schools and clinics in Juba, Southern Sudan, and nearby areas, where a peace accord last year ended two decades of civil war that uprooted some 4.5 million people from their homes.