Contact: Mike Kiernan, 202-261-4686, 202-460-0614 cell; Eileen Burke, 203-221-4233, 203-216-0718 cell; Kate Conradt, 202-261-4673, 202-294-9700 cell; all with Save the Children

WESTPORT, Conn., Dec. 20 /Standard Newswire/ -- Save the Children announced today that it has received a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a water and sanitation project in West Darfur, Sudan.  The grant will help the agency provide sanitation facilities and clean drinking water to more than 55,000 displaced children and family members forced to flee their homes and live in temporary shelters due to continued violence.

"The humanitarian crisis in Darfur requires immediate action.  Save the Children's efforts will help prevent many unnecessary deaths among displaced families in West Darfur," said David Fleming, Director of Global Health Strategies at the Gates Foundation. 

"In West Darfur, the need to provide conflict-affected children and families with access to basic water and sanitation facilities remains urgent," said Charles MacCormack, President and CEO of Save the Children.

"According to recent UN estimates, half of all the affected people in targeted areas where Save the Children works in West Darfur lack access to potable water and continue to rely on unsafe, contaminated water for drinking and other domestic use," MacCormack said. "This new grant will help us reduce the likelihood of water-borne diseases such as dysentery, diarrhea, meningitis and cholera, especially among children."

The grant is the third that Save the Children has received from the Gates Foundation for ongoing emergency relief in Darfur. The previous two grants were instrumental in helping Save the Children conduct a rapid assessment of conditions affecting children and launch humanitarian relief efforts in West Darfur.