Ms Niamh Cooper:

There are 7.1 million people who are severely food insecure as a result of the conflict in South Sudan. That is the projection for the period between May and July this year. That means that the people concerned do not have access to food - they are starving. It is leading to malnutrition and death. Some 1 million children under the age of five years are acutely malnourished. That is horrific. I have travelled to many places with World Vision and never seen the severity of the conditions in South Sudan at the beginning of this month. I had to walk out of nutrition centres a few times because they were overcrowded, with queues outside. They were like what we see on those terrible television advertisements, with starving children who were skin and bone suffering from malaria and severe malnutrition. One woman had on her knee two very small twin babies who were desperately trying to breastfeed. However, looking at her it was possible to tell that there was no chance they were going to get any nutrition from her. When I asked her about it, she said they were actually improving. When she had first arrived, they were in an even worse state. They looked like newborn babies, but they were actually six months old. That is the type of situation with which we are dealing and it was multiplied by hundreds on any one day. It is serve.

Some 4 million people have been displaced, one third of them within South Sudan and the rest in neighbouring countries. They are running from horrific conflict. When we spoke to the children, so many of them told us that they had witnessed their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends being murdered in front of their eyes. That is from what they are running. There is no number 999 to dial. They just have to run and flee.

The economic situation in South Sudan is horrific, with hyperinflation running at a rate of up to 500%. The humanitarian budget is providing for the provision of services in the country. It is two to four times the national budget and used to provide health and education facilities.

There has been an attempt to seek a cessation of hostilities. I am moving to the next slide in my presentation. The pink dots on the map of South Sudan are the areas where there is conflict. There is conflict almost everywhere now and it is horrific. That is what is causing the crisis. People are being forced from their homes and cannot farm to produce food. That is why there is no food available in the country. The UN World Food Programme, WFP, shared the map with me when I was there. I thought it was a powerful illustration of how the country was deteriorating. From the top of the slide downwards, the red zones are the areas in which there is food insecurity. In January 2016 there were no red zones. There were orange zones, areas in which there were food crises. The last image on the bottom right of the slide shows that there are emergencies across the entire country. The situation was bad to start with, but it is getting worse daily. From our perspective, we are desperate for the international community to be made aware of this, step in and do something to help the people of South Sudan.

The key issues affecting children and the with which communities we are working are conflict, displacement and violence. Children are mainly affected by the violence. They have been murdered, sexually assaulted and forced into military and armed groups. They are traumatised.

I have commented on the economic situation. Some 33% of the people in South Sudan have access to health services; the rest do not. There is malnutrition, as well as malaria and, as a result of 3 million people not having access to water, cholera. It is severe.

Most children in South Sudan are not in school. As a result, illiteracy rates are among the worst in the world. Only 16% of women and 24% of men can read and write. The position is dire.

I will give a quick overview of World Vision. It is the largest NGO in South Sudan where it has been operating for over 30 years, including when it was part of Sudan. It has a presence in 30 states represented by the grey areas on the map. Irish Aid is supporting our work in Melut and Renk in the extreme north. World Vision is dealing with a total of 1.3 million people, mainly children and women. We have almost 1,000 staff, run 68 projects and are investing $100 million. We have listed our major donors which, of course, include Irish Aid. We provide non-food items such as blankets, cooking equipment, water and sanitation facilities. There is a desperate need for water, without which, as we know, children die as a result of diarrhoea and diseases such as cholera. It is essential that we provide help. I refer also to the provision of health services, livelihoods and protection. World Vision is the World Food Programme's leading partner in providing food assistance. We are providing food for over 1 million people throughout South Sudan. World Vision is on the ground, even in the most dangerous areas. We work with local and national staff. The World Food Programme airdrops food and World Vision distributes it. It is still very dangerous for staff on the ground. There have been many security issues. We call on the international community to ensure humanitarian workers can continue to provide food.

We focus mainly on maternal and child health services. We provide children under five years with nutritional and malarial support. Malaria is the biggest killer of children in South Sudan. Malnourished children are much more susceptible to it. It can be contracted by up to 70% of children during the rainy season.

That is a huge number and up to 30% of these children do not make it. Our focus is on providing support in that area.

We also deal with water and sanitation. We are providing hundreds of thousands of people with clean water. Nutrition entails emergency feeding for children who are severely malnourished. We also provide protection. We have what are known as child-friendly spaces throughout the country. These are essential spaces where children are safe to play. They learn, are educated and receive psychological support in these spaces. There are also football pitches and they children sing, dance and colour pictures. The children, who have been through the most horrific experiences, smile and laugh in these places, which are essential. We have also worked with the United Nations to release hundreds of child soldiers whom we are rehabilitating after their experiences.

We are also working in Uganda, where 1.3 million South Sudanese people are currently displaced. I do not know if the committee is aware that the Ugandan Government has a strong policy on accepting refugees and pursues an open door policy. Uganda provides refugees with land and tries to help them support themselves while living in the country as refugees. More than 100 people a day are still entering Uganda, whereas last year, the figure was 2,000 per day. While the figure has decreased, people are still entering the country and 61% of them are children. People go to Uganda to try to get education and healthcare for their children.

World Vision is responding. We are providing nearly 700,000 refugees with food and 70,000 children with protection programmes, mainly through our child-friendly spaces. We provide education and we have provided clean water to more than 30,000 people. We are supporting livelihoods also, for example, training people to be carpenters, even in camps such as the Bidi Bidi refugee camp. I was just reading about one young man who trained to be a carpenter in the camp and whose business is booming. Life continues and we are supporting that. My colleague, Ms Finnegan, will speak about our Irish Aid funded work.