Adult Literacy Classes for Women

With assistance from the British Embassy in Khartoum we hold basic literacy classes for women who can’t read or write.

one of our supported adult literacy teachers  with her class.

Over 600 women attend these classes in 20 locations around Khartoum. On our visit we saw women teachers helping women to read. “ Thank you”, said one woman ,” Now I can read signs and I can write my name”.

Learn more about our Women's Literacy project here

Women attending a Women's Education Partnership basic literacy class

one of our teachers in in the centre – to the right is Neimat , our in country coordinator

Learn more about our Women's Literacy project here

A Warm Welcome

Penny and I send greetings from Sudan to Women's Education Partnership supporters in England  and beyond.

It's a hot day here and the traffic is busy.

This is day one of our visit to our staff and our students here.

There are also plans to visits many of our projects - including adult literacy, HIV/Aids outreaches for women and eye care clinics.

George at The Acropole Hotel, one of our strong local supporters,  has made us very welcome from the moment we arrived at the airport from Nairobi.

We were with Neimat in the Acropole hotel on the first day of our visit. She welcomed us very warmly, so warmly that I practised my new video skills on her. I intend on this visit to record short movies of what we see and who we visit so you can see what we see a  bit clearer. I hope you appreciate our efforts.  Thank you Neimat.

Two New Scholars

We have just had good news from Khartoum about two recently selected additional university scholars who are being supported by St Martin in the Fields.

This is really excellent news that we are very pleased about. The new scholars are called Samra and Maab.

We are delighted to have this information from Neimat, our coordinator in Khartoum, both women are presently studying at Ahfad University. Peter our Director very much hopes to meet Samra and Maab when he travels to Khartoum next year.

More news on these scholars and all our other scholars will follow. 

Ibrahim and Izdihar

Ibrahim and Izdihar are two of our four Women's Education Partnership staff in Sudan who coordinate and monitor our projects there.  

Ibrahim and Izdihar both Women's Education Partnership staff in Khartoum

Izdihar (right) has special responsibility for our 88 undergraduate students and she really knows them well and understands them. They rely on her to look after them as they learn in Khartoum, often far away from their home areas which are affected by troubles.
Ibrahim organises the classes for women we teach in adult literacy in the dusty poorer areas of Khartoum. He also helps us monitor the work we do to educate young children made orphans through HIV/Aids in 10 schools. 



We talked with them today in the office before we headed south to Juba.

Ida's Dream

Without Together for Sudan, I would have had no chance in life.

Ida, originally from the Nuba Mountains, graduated in October 2012 from Africa University in Khartoum. She was one of our scholars and through this support she has gained a very Good degree in health science at Africa University Khartoum. She is now working at a government hospital as a nurse caring for patients who are suffering from heart problems and diabetes.." Without Together for Sudan, I would have had no chance in life. This allowed me to follow my dream to study and to become a nurse."

Meeting With Dr Gassim

With Dr Gassim Badri ( chancellor of Ahfad University Khartoum)  and Neimat ( Women's Education Partnership/Together for Sudan coordinator in Sudan) and Izidhar ( who monitors closely for us the progress and well being of our scholars). 


Neimat and Izdihar (centre) with Dr Gassim Badri 

Dr Gassim said how vital it is that disadvantaged women have access to education. We must therefore continue to expand our scholarship scheme if we can. The fact that already 285 of our scholars have graduated is an amazing and unique achievement to support Women in Education in this part of the world. 



We talked of how we could encourage our students even more and we are exploring running some English conversation classes for them nearby using volunteers from among our local supporters. 

Dr Gassim leads a remarkable university for women and many of our students see him as a role model for level headed and calm leadership, especially in the recent disturbances. 
Dr Gassim is one of our patrons and we thanked him personally on behalf of all our supporters  for his personal generosity and his commitment to our scholars. 

  

Greetings from Khartoum

Khartoum is hot and dusty with people relaxing at the end of the festival. 

We were welcomed on arrival and met in the busy airport terminal with friendship and smiles. 

And! We travelled with only hand luggage !

Neimat will join us later this evening and we will greet her from friends of Together for Sudan/ Women's Education Partnership. 

Peter and Penny - Saturday evening at the Acropole, Khartoum. 

More Good News from Khartoum

The oft-postponed operations day finally took place at the Bashir hospital in the Mayo suburb of Khartoum in mid-November.  355 patients were seen of whom 300 received medicines, mostly eye-drops and vitamins.  48 operations were recommended and carried out, of which 29 were for cataracts and the remainder miscellaneous surgeries.  The follow-up day to review the patients who underwent the operations will be on 13 December.

Here are some photos of some of the patients.

Deng Yoor 14 month has Ophthalmoglegia and complete Ptosis 

Rogia Fateh Alrahman 75 year old she has Glaucoma in both eyes 

Mary Maytout 23 years old from South Sudan she has cornia and Ptosis 

Abeker Dafallah Abutemon 39 years old has Glaucouma  

Waiting their turn for an operation all of them for Cataracts 

Encouraging News

Encouraging report today from our colleagues in Khartoum that our women’s literacy classes are now working well after some initial problems over venues and class timings.  Now we have 19 classes working in the suburbs of Khartoum and Omdurman, for women who have been displaced, mostly from the Nuba Mountains and western Sudan (Darfur).  Our monitoring in November showed an average attendance of 22 at the classes, which are held three times a week.  The photo shows our largest class at Wad al Bashir, a suburb of Omdurman.  We hope that at the end of their course in March 2014, the women will be able to tackle the government’s basic literacy exam.

Zamzam Success

Our colleagues are now all back at work in Khartoum after ten days’ holiday for the Eid (including two weekends!).  They report another successful eye care outreach, which was held at Zamzam pre-school in the Haj Yousif suburb of Khartoum North on 31 October. 

104 patients were seen including 61 children.  71 received medicines and 8 were referred for corrective lenses.  11 operations were recommended of which 3, all cataract surgeries, were carried out in the Jubra Clinic on 4 November. 

Thanks to all those involved and to our generous donors.

Learn more about our TfS eye care project here

Eye Care

Our Khartoum office report two further eye care outreaches on 21 and 30 September in remote areas outside Khartoum and Omdurman. A total of 244 patients were seen of whom 152 received medicines, mainly eye drops, 43 were given eye glasses, 47 were sent for examinations to ensure that the correct lenses were prescribed and 30 operations were recommended, several of which have already been carried out. 

  

A 20 year old patient was operated on by Dr Nabila on 

the day of the outreach to remove a foreign body.

The need for this service is undiminished and we give our warmest thanks to Dr Nabila Radi and her assistants for carrying out the work in hot and difficult conditions.

A 52 year old patient who has suffered from Glaucoma
for a long time and will need to use eye drops
for the rest of his life.

We are planning an operations day in a clinic outside Khartoum but this has had to be postponed more than once because of the unavailability of the necessary facilities.  We hope to mount this outreach in the course of October.  

Dr Nabila operated on this patient on the 

day of the outreach. 

Meanwhile the funds generously donated by two European charities, Dark and Light and Light for the World, are almost exhausted.  We are urgently seeking funds to enable us to continue this vital work.  Can you help us?

Please learn more about making a donation to TfS from our donation page

Fulla Falls Basic School Update

Lillian and I visited Fulla Falls we were shocked to learn that the school premises which had been used by the school since its foundation in 1999 had been bulldozed.  The school is now operating under straw shelters, which are so close together that one class hears everything said in the class next door. The teachers deserve great credit for carrying on in these very difficult circumstances.  The pre-school has its own small compound a short distance away and is better off, though as the photos show conditions are still basic.

Children of Fulla Falls School Grade 2

It seems that the government want to expropriate and develop the land at Soba Aradi, which is relatively close to Khartoum and to the new US Embassy at Soba. The people do not know what will become of them but expect to be relocated either to a distant area south of Khartoum or an even more remote area called Al Fateh 2 north-west of Omdurman. Both lack even basic facilities.

Children of the Fulla Falls Pre- School

The school expects to move with the majority of the people to whichever of these sites is chosen. They do not know whether the government will make land available there for the school, nor whether they will receive any compensation.

The education of girls is vitally important

At present our support is much appreciated to help the school survive. We shall need to consider what more might be done in due course to enable the school to continue in its new location. But they need to discover first where they will go and to plan the move.

Eye Care in Soba Aradi

In two eye care outreaches in the suburbs of Omdurman and Khartoum at the end of April 2012 patients were seen of whom 140 were prescribed medicines, 50 received glasses, and 55 were recommended for operations, most of which have since been performed.  Many thanks to Dr Nabila and her colleagues for their work for the displaced needing eye care in the Khartoum area.

Women from Soba Aradi wait after eye surgery

One of these women was operated on for Glaucoma
and the other had a foreign body removed. 

This foreign body was removed from a patients eye

Our funding for eye care outreaches is running out so to keep this vital work going we need donations. Please donate to TfS, there is a button to donate on line through the blog but you can find out more from the donations page on our website. Please click here for the link. http://www.togetherforsudan.org/donate.aspx

Eye Care Outreach in Um Ruwaba

The crowd masses before the eye care outreach starts

Our Khartoum office report the conclusion of a very successful week-long eye care outreach at Um Ruwaba in North Kordofan state, near the border with the Nuba Mountains.  Sadly continued fighting made it impossible to conduct the outreach in Talodi, in the Nuba Mountains, as we had planned.  We chose Um Ruwaba instead because it has a large population of people displaced by the fighting in South Kordofan.  The outreach was conducted by a medical team from Khartoum assisted by staff from Um Ruwaba and a team of volunteers from the Sudanese Red Crescent.  Our project coordinator, Saudi Abdul Rahman, had his hands full to ensure that everything worked smoothly!

The Optician was checking people sight so as to distribute reading glasses

The doctor carefully performs a sight saving operation

During the week 1692 patients (well above the targeted 1000) were examined and 160 operations performed, including 142 cataract surgeries.  A further 55 operations were recommended and will be carried out during a follow up visit at the end of May.  It is worth noting that this was the first occasion on which our new operating microscope was used and that it worked very well.  This microscope replaced that stolen from our Kadugli office by looters last June and was part-funded by a grant from the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.  The outreach itself was supported by a grant from two European charities, Dark and Light, and Light for the World.  Many thanks to all our donors.

An old woman waiting to see a doctor fell a sleep due to fatigue.

A Special Opportunity

The forthcoming retirement of Together for Sudan's founding Director offers an opportunity for a qualified volunteer to take over the lead in our work to help Sudanese women and children.

Candidates should be flexible , patient, and courageous as well as able to engage sensitively with people in Sudan and South Sudan. They may be male or female and should have some experience of fund-raising, advocacy and liaison with donors.

They must be willing to visit Sudan and South Sudan at least twice a year (expenses will be paid). Working closely with TFS Trustees the new Director will promote, develop and administer a growing charity dedicated to the education and medical needs of marginalized women and children, which is supported by Friends Together for Sudan, a US charity.

The Director will be expected to work from his/her home or office for a minimum of 16 hours a week, reporting to TFS Trustees and keeping in close contact by email with TFS colleagues in Khartoum and Juba, managing as well as monitoring their work.

The Director will have considerable autonomy. (S)he should therefore have a good track record as a self-starter and preferably with some knowledge of Sudan and South Sudan. Willingness to adopt and take forward the ethos of the charity's founders will be key.

A more detailed description of the position can be downloaded here.

Interviews are expected to be held in central London during July 2012.


Applicants should send their details by June 20th to:

Malcolm Grundy (TfS Trustee),
4 Portal Road, 
York YO26 6BQ.   


 +44(0)1904787387        malcolm@togetherforsudan.org

A Teacher for Kenneth Fraser

Our Khartoum office report that a generous Sudanese donor has offered to fund a teacher in one of the self-help schools for the displaced in the Khartoum area.  We have chosen the Kenneth Fraser school in Omdurman to benefit from this support. The school has lost many students and 6 teachers who have recently moved to the South, but is still working with some 300 pupils, mostly displaced from Darfur and Kordofan, and 12 teachers.

It is interesting to note that the school is named for Dr Kenneth Fraser, a medical missionary from Scotland, who ran away from home at the age of 14 to join the army and eventually retired as a major-general in the army medical corps.  He moved to South Sudan in 1920 and died in Lui after 15 years’ medical missionary work among the Moru people.  It seems fitting that a school should still commemorate his legacy of service.

We hope that others will be moved to join the supporters of schools for the displaced in Sudan.

Learn about making a donation to Together for Sudan

The Teacher Training and Support Project

Scholarships for Elementary Education

Closing day of Literacy Training

Our Khartoum office reports the successful conclusion of the training course for literacy teachers.  One of the trainers commented that the trainees were highly motivated and had participated effectively in the training programme.
See the start of this training here.

The British Embassy representative participated in the training too. 

Teacher Leila went on to say that she was sure that all the trainees were qualified and motivated to set up and run their own literacy classes.

The trainees come from all areas surrounding the three towns which make up the Sudanese capital and should therefore be able to ensure a wide availability of classes for displaced women.

Trainers and Trainees proudly pose with their certificates.

The challenge now for Together for Sudan is to mobilize resources to support at least 20 of these classes.  Each class, for 20 women, will cost us around 50 pounds a month.

Can you help ?
If you can help please donate what every you can spare.

Learn about making a donations to Together for Sudan    or

Donate online now with a credit or debit card using our Paypal charity account

International Woman's Day

Neimat speaking at the British Embassy 

Together for Sudan was well represented at the celebration of International Women’s Day organized this month by the British Embassy in Khartoum.  Country Coordinator, Mrs Neimat Hussein, gave the first speech, focusing on the literacy teachers’ training organized by Together for Sudan and funded by the British Embassy.  She also gave an interview to a local TV station.

Fatihia, Mona, Eman, and Muahib,  literacy teachers attended he celebration

Five of the trainees also attended and briefed the participants on their experience of the training.
Please consider supporting our Women's Literacy Project, to learn more click here.

More Good News From Khartoum

“ Good news today from Khartoum!  One of our Nuba graduates, Ms Naglaa Yacoub Abbo, has been awarded a scholarship to attend the prestigious St Gallen symposium next May.  The symposium at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland brings together 600 thinkers and decision-makers with 200 talented young personalities to develop solutions to key issues of our time.  Naglaa has been invited as one of these 200 ‘leaders of tomorrow’ from all over the world.  This year’s symposium has the title “Facing Risk”.  That’s something with which Nuba women are all too familiar!

Naglaa graduated last year with a BSc (Honours) from the Faculty of Rural Extension, Education and Development at Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman.  Her degree project was on Violence against Women.  Her university fees were met by Together for Sudan thanks to the generous grant from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, who also nominated Naglaa for the St Gallen event.  Many thanks to the Foundation for their interest and support.

This award to Naglaa is also a recognition of the work of Together for Sudan and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for the education of women in Africa.  Thank you to our friends at St Gallen.”

Literacy from Lambeth

In October 2011 Together for Sudan held a charitable auction event to raise funds for its work in Sudan. Through the kindness of many people around £10,000.00 was raised some of which has now been spent on our Womens Literacy Project in Khartoum.
Neimat Hussain of the Khartoum TfS project centre reports below.

"The literacy training is going on well, Saudi had accompanied the trainees to Alfateh -2 (Philip’s class) yesterday to practice what they have acquired from the training course. It was absolutely enjoyable for both the trainers and trainees, because every person was put into practice.

A TfS trainee practices her newly learned skills.

One of the course enrollees’ acquired the skills of reading and writing in just four months".

This is not unusual with the right training. The provision of literacy is a key skill that enhances and enables marginalised Sudanese women. You can help us to keep this vital training project going by making a donation either online or directly to our treasurer.

Please click here to learn more.

The opportunity to provide this training was made possible by the kindness of those donating and bidding at our Lambeth Auction event all the trustees of Together for Sudan are truly grateful for the generosity of all those that took part in that event - Thank you all.