How to send a gift to a family in Sudan: 5 ways, with their costs and risks

By the Gifts to Sudan volunteers · Published 6 November 2026 · Updated 6 November 2026
Written with help from AI tools; the sources are cited on the page. Found a mistake? Write to info@giftstosudan.org.

You want something to reach a family in Sudan: your own relatives, a friend's family, or people you will never meet. Since the war began in April 2023, the usual routes have become slow, costly or broken. Here are five ways that people use today, what each one costs, and where each one can go wrong, including ways that have nothing to do with us.

Disclosure: we are the volunteers behind Gifts to Sudan, so way 5 is ours. We list the others because they are real options, and because the right one depends on who you are sending to.

Hands cut Eid biscuits on a metal tray in Sudan — Illustrative photo. Photo: Reem M Hamid, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence, cropped)

1. A bank app transfer (Bankak and others), for people you know

Inside Sudan, many payments now run through bank apps. The most widely used is Bankak, run by the Bank of Khartoum; others include Fawry (Faisal Islamic Bank) and Ocash (Omdurman National Bank). Relatives abroad often pay someone who holds a Bankak balance, and that person credits the family's account.

Good for: your own family, who have an account and can tell you it arrived.
Watch out: cash is scarce, so turning an app balance into banknotes can cost a cut; one 2025 report gave an example of about 10%. Apps also go down at times.
Rule: agree the rate before you pay, and only use a middleman your family knows in person.

2. A trusted agent (hawala), for larger family support

Informal transfer through a trusted agent has carried Sudanese family money for generations. It runs on trust: you hand money to an agent where you live, and a partner pays your family in Sudan. It can be fast, but there is no receipt that a court or bank will recognise, and the law on informal transfers differs from country to country. Ask about the rules where you live before you use it.

3. Goods bought in Sudan, instead of cash

Prices in Sudan change fast. In July 2026 the basic monthly basket that aid groups use for a household cost about 689,000 Sudanese pounds, 9% more than in June (REACH market monitoring). A sack of sorghum, oil, sugar or dates bought for a family keeps its value better than banknotes that lose value month by month. Read Sudan food prices in 2026 for the figures.

Want food, not cash, to reach a family? Choose what your gift becomes, and follow it in the public ledger.

Give a gift How it works

4. Groups already on the ground

If you do not know a family personally, give through people who do. Sudan's neighbourhood Emergency Response Rooms, about 700 of them according to a 2025 report, run kitchens and help families, and many are funded by Sudanese abroad. Large agencies such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF work at scale. Our page trusted charities for Sudan lists official links.

5. A stablecoin gift that becomes food (our way)

You send USDT on TRON or USDC on Base from anywhere, with no bank in between. The volunteers buy food and household goods in Sudan's own markets and hand them to families as gifts (hadiyah), not cash and not as a handout. 100% of what you give buys gifts; we cover the fees on our side. Each step goes into the public ledger. New to this? Read USDT for beginners.

Whatever way you choose: four checks

Do you know the person who receives first, or does your family know them in person?
Was the rate or fee agreed in writing before you paid?
Did anyone ask you to pay to a "new" account in a private message? Treat that as a scam until proven otherwise.
Can someone confirm that it arrived, without putting the family at risk?

And whether you call it a gift, sadaqah or zakat matters for how it may be given. Read hadiyah, sadaqah and zakat.

Send a gift today

Choose what your gift becomes: dates from Sudanese farmers, eggs, grain, poultry, or wherever it is most needed. Follow it in the ledger from the wallet to the family.

Give a gift Share with a friend

Gifts to Sudan is a volunteer initiative, not a registered charity, and holds no licence. 100% of what you give buys gifts; we cover the fees on our side, and the public ledger shows them.