In Its 11th Year... Accident Street - Unextinguished Candles
Al-Zain Osman
In this year, volunteers of the Accident Street organization couldnt light the candles for their new year. The initiative, launched in 2012 by the student Ahmed Idris and others, aimed to provide healthcare and treatment to Sudanese children whose families couldnt afford it. Their motto was Wherever a needy child is found, we must be present.
The initiative chose a tree near the Jafar Ibn Auf Childrens Hospital in Khartoum as its headquarters, urging people to donate for the service those in need. They used a blue notebook labeled A Thousand Stories Happen Here.
There are no shifts on the street anymore; none of the volunteers can access the area they used to sit in. Even the hospital that was once the reference for childrens healthcare has closed its doors due to the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces since last April.
In another location far from Accident Street but on the same path of duty and service, Idris and his comrades find themselves forced to light candles of hope, to never stop, and to continue on the same road.
There, at the Noh Hospital in the Thawra district of Omdurman, the only hospital that fights to keep providing service, Momen and Zainab, along with other volunteers, sit and have tea, taking advantage of a moment of ceasefire and calm amidst the conflict. Momen writes: Seven knights without horses. Renewing the pact among us is fighting in other ways to save what can be saved, to sow hope in those who lost much laughter and stories, about a day gone by, about the injured and their dreams. Half an hour without the sounds of bullets, without shelling, without amputated limbs, without casualties or martyrs. Half an hour of safety, where the sounds of laughter and joy prevail over the sounds of bullets, blood, and mourning. Half an hour to wipe yesterdays sorrows away with todays laughter... and the journey continues.
Speaking of tea, there is a connection between the Accident Street organization and tea. Their headquarters near the Khartoum Hospital was originally the spot of a tea vendor, and the first pediatric intensive care room they established at the Mohammed Al-Amin Childrens Hospital in Omdurman was inaugurated by Mama Qisma, the tea vendor. This event stirred intense controversy during the time of the ousted regime through the December revolution.
After 11 years since the inception of the Accident Street organization, its youth are still committed to lighting the candles of service for both the young and the old. Its founder still writes, calling on everyone to support the cause, whether to buy medicine, deliver oxygen, pay for an ambulance, or donate blood to save lives. But above all, he calls out to them: Please, keep the children away from the fires of war!
