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.

Why I Support.......

A quote from a generous sponsor of one of our university scholars at Ahfad University:

Much can be done - given the chance

“Over twenty five years ago I went to Sudan as a very young and very inexperienced teacher to work in a girls’ secondary school. I was humbled both by the immense generosity and kindness of the girls I had the blessing to meet there and their determination, often despite incredible personal hardship, to continue their education, become qualified and go on to serve their community. They knew instinctively that education was liberating and empowering and treasured every moment they had at school. Sadly, because of their family circumstances, so few of them were able to go to university.

Education empowers and that is why I was so happy to help Together for Sudan in its essential work in building educational programs and in particular, by helping a young woman from the Nuba Mountains to go to university. It is personally thrilling to be able to follow her progress and feel that in a small way I have helped repay my debt to the people of Sudan.”

Learn more about our University Scholarship Project

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.

Jebel Aulia

Izdihar reports from Khartoum on the latest eye care outreach at Jebel Aulia on 5th July.  Dr Nabila who regularly works with us examined 93 patients, prescribed medicine for 63, and recommended 9 for operations which carried out in the following week.  10 patients in all received glasses.

The TfS Eye Care Project

Meet just three of the people that Together for Sudan saw in this eye care outreach.

Mudathir Sefdin, 12 years old, has a squint which needs surgery

Fatima Fadul, 2 year old, came from Kosti city south of Khartoum.  She had trauma in her right eye and needed a scan which costs 250 Sudanese pounds

Nafahat Awad Almahadi is 10 years old.  It is difficult for her to see during the day.  She has been referred to Macca hospital for specialist treatment

Please help us to continue to help people such as these by making a donation to Together for Sudan, even a little can make a big difference. Please click here to learn more about making a donation.

TfS Graduate Attends the St Gallans Symposium

Nagla at the entrance to the symposium

One of the Nuba graduates from TFS’ scholarship programme generously funded by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Nagla Abbo, recently attended the 42nd symposium at St Gallen, Switzerland  for young leaders of tomorrow.  She is only the second Sudanese to have been honored by such an invitation. The topic of the discussion was Managing Risk.  Nagla says that risks should be seen as positive uncertainties and not as unavoidable evils.  She believes that the days spent in St Gallen with 200 other young people from all over the world , as well as many of today’s leaders, surely challenged her way of looking at her own society, culture and life, and will broaden her perspectives.  Overall she found the symposium “an awesome experience”.

This is but one example of how the scholarship programme can open doors for young Sudanese women.  TFS is very grateful to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for having sponsored not only Nagla’s studies but also her nomination to the symposium.  And we thank the St Gallen organizers for accepting Nagla and for all their hospitality to her and the other participants.

Nagla is one of 244 graduates from the scholarship programme so far.  TFS is sponsoring a further 122 scholars, with generous support from the Gordon Memorial College Trust Fund and Humanity United as well as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.  Sadly we do not have funds at present for new awards, though the demand is high and we are receiving a steady flow of enquiries from Sudanese students keen to further their education at the university level in Sudan and South Sudan.  Can you help us meet this demand?

Learn about donating to Together for Sudan

Learn more about our University Scholarship Project