'It is a miracle': Charity founder reunites with child who inspired her to help half a million people in Darfur

The journey has not been without danger - Darfur was ravaged by civil war from 2003, and founder Patricia Parker and her son were kidnapped in 2005 by rebel forces.
Ibrahim (front, centre) aged nine with a group of friends in Um'Gal, Darfur (Picture: Kids for Kids)
Kids for Kids

A charity founder has been reunited 17 years on with the man who as a nine-year-old boy inspired her to help more than 550,000 people in Darfur.

Patricia Parker, from Surrey, founded Kids for Kids in 2001 after meeting Ibrahim wandering in the desert. Ms Parker and her family initially thought the young boy was lost, but he revealed he was just on his daily 14-hour round route to reach and fetch clean water.

The family picked Ibrahim up, then installed a hand-pump in his village, Um’Gal, which allowed him the time to go to school.

Inspired to help other children, days later Mrs Parker, now 72, launched the charity in Darfur’s capital, Khartoum.

Kids for Kids has since supported around 100 villages in the country, and helped over 550,000 people access clean drinking water, a livelihood through donated goats, and education. Her work has since seen Mrs Parker recognised with an MBE and even an audience with Pope Francis.

But it has not been without danger - Darfur was ravaged by civil war from 2003, and the founder and her son were kidnapped in 2005 by rebel forces.

Patricia Parker MBE with Ibrahim, his wife, sister, and mother in Um'Gal last month (Kids for Kids)

They were released from the “terrifying” experience within a day and continued to support families through the crisis.

However, the region was a "centre of violence", and until tensions calmed recently Mrs Parker was unable to return Um Ga’al to see how the boy who inspired her work was doing.

The conflict that broke out in 2003 eventually led to the deaths of over 300,000 people.

Speaking after reuniting in Um'Gaal, she told the Standard: “It is a miracle. This was the centre of violence for many years, and I was really afraid that we would have lost him.

“To meet him now and see he’s alive, the same height as my son, over 6ft, it is incredible. Because of him, one little lad grown tall, we have helped 550,000 people.

“He started school at nine and it was very difficult for him to study - he was the man of family, his father had left. Now his little four-year-old son is going to the kindergarten we started in the village… It is such a complete circle.

Ibrahim with his wife and their son, sister, and mother in Um'Gal last month (Kids for Kids)

“He’s shy, he sweetly came up and touched my shoulder and said ‘my son’, and he introduced his wife holding his firstborn son and his other son. I now have a picture of them and I will treasure it forever. It’s going up next to the one of me meeting Prince Charles.”

She called on Londoners to help keep the work going, saying: “If we can transform the life of Ibrahim then let’s do what we can for other children who are facing just about the worst conditions I have ever known in Sudan.”

Last month Sudan’s current rulers agreed to hand over ex-President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face genocide and war crimes charges.

Donate at www.kidsforkids.org.uk

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