Red Sea State regularly faces periods of drought which affect rural communities. Marielise Berg-Sonne of the Danish Red Cross explains: "We are working with the Sudanese Red Crescent (SRCS) on water projects which will promote food security.”

In the same area, the Norwegian Red Cross trains women in literacy and gives support to handicraft production among the Beja nomads.

Kassala State also experiences drought. There, the German Red Cross runs three projects, covering agriculture, boreholes and school construction.

In Kassala State, the Netherlands Red Cross supports Sudanese Red Crescent health clinics and a water and sanitation programme in six camps for the internally displaced. The clinics are also used by the resident population because there is no other health care in the area.

The German Red Cross has rehabilitated, and provides medicine to, seven health clinics in Western Bahr-Al-Ghazal and four in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan. There, the society helps communities create gardens around water holes while in Kosti, White Nile State, it has built a health clinic for people returning to the south.

In Rashad, South Kordofan State, the Austrian Red Cross, in partnership with the German Red Cross, is working on a community development project focusing on water and sanitation, hygiene awareness and food security. In South Kordofan a similar project is being run by the Austrian Red Cross alone. In 2007 the society aims to assist around 30,000 people.

Also in South Kordofan, the Norwegian Red Cross is helping the Sudanese Red Crescent strengthen its Kadugli branch through training in first aid and emergency relief management.

In Blue Nile State, the Spanish Red Cross supports local communities in Kurmuk and Geissan with the provision of basic services, education and construction of grain mills.

In Juba County, Central Equatoria, the Netherlands Red Cross supports the Sudanese Red Crescent in a community-based primary health care programme, including four clinics previously run by the ICRC. The programme is expanding into rural areas where the focus will be on volunteer training, community-based health and hygiene. It will benefit people displaced by the long war in the south as well as returnees from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Norwegian Red Cross, jointly with the Swedish Red Cross, has worked in and around Yirol since 2005. The two national societies took over four facilities that had been helped by the ICRC and which provided care for around 60,000 patients.

The Danish Red Cross is also involved in primary health development in rural areas, along with the Sudanese Red Crescent.

Read also Sudan/Darfur: Red Cross and Red Crescent teams respond to the crisis