Majdolin at Juba University Celebrating being a Women's Education Partnership Scholar

Majdolin celebrates with a smile

Majdolin is in her 4th year at the university studying medicine. She started in Khartoum on a Together for Sudan scholarship then moved South after the independence of South Sudan. She had no chance of going to university without the scholarship. "There are problems to overcome - sometimes we have no books but since being a teenager I wanted to be a doctor and I am continuing. " Her Women's Education Partnership scholarship ( WEP is our new name ) friends elected her as their representative when we met them and Majdolin plans to make sure our group of girls stay in touch with each other and support each other as they study. 

Moving Forwards

Thank you, trustees of Together for Sudan for appointing me as your new Director. It is a great privilege to be asked to continue the remarkable work which Lillian Craig Harris and Alan Goulty have done in developing life changing projects for women in Sudan and South Sudan.

During the next two months I will be working closely with Lilian and Alan to prepare for a visit to our staff in both countries. In April we will travel  together to introduce me as the new director to our project leaders.

In the future, I see the role of Together for Sudan to be a partnership between generous donors, workers who are making things happen locally and the people who need help most. Developing this partnership in education will give us a renewed sense of purpose, building on the firm foundations of the past and responding positively to the challenges of the future.

This partnership will become even stronger as we listen carefully to the women who need us, try to remove the barriers to progress and plan quickly and act generously. Our first task will be to ensure that the projects which are running well are properly funded and well supported  in difficult times.

Through the generosity of our donors, there is so much going on which is life changing and my hope is that we continue to stay close to the women who are in need of educational support.

On our return from our visit to Sudan and South Sudan , Lillian and I will together write a news letter to introduce you to our friends in Africa and the hopes that we and they have for the future. We want to share more stories with you where Together has made a difference.

I have been a teacher and head teacher in challenging schools where pupils have needed education most and without education, talent would have been wasted.  I have seen first hand how education opens doors and makes a difference. As your new Director of Together for Sudan it is my dream that every education project and every Together for Sudan scholar should be Hopeful and I want Together for Sudan and our Partnership to be Hopeful in all that we do.

Thank you for your support and I look forward in Hope as working Together we grow stronger.

News and Developments

Plans To Set Up Closer Ties with Ahfad University for Women.

TfS is currently in conversation with Ahfad University, our first partner, to strengthen the relationship by helping Ahfad improve the English language kills of first year students. President Gasim Badri, a TfS Patron, has made it a policy through the years to include southern and other displaced women, many of whom now remain at Ahfad, to complete their education. We salute Dr. Gasim for his far sighted and humanitarian approach to education as he follows in the footsteps of his grandfather who insisted on the need to educate girls and of his father who founded the school which eventually became Ahfad University for Women.

News from South Kordofan.

The Together for Sudan field office at Kadugli in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan has been closed since early June when widespread fighting broke out between Sudanese government forces and local militias. The area remains insecure and the TfS office closed although some of the looted furniture and equipment has been returned. Office guard Nazar keeps an eye on the situation but TfS Field Coordinator Ibrahim is unable for security reasons to return to Kadugli and now works in our Khartoum office. Sadly, a planed TfS Eye  Care Outreach at Kadugli hospital later this year, using a team of eye specialists from
Khartoum, has been indefinitely postponed.

Eye Care Outreach in Women’s Prison, Omdurman.

During October Dr. Nabila Radi examined 113 women, 17 children and six men in the women’s prison in Omdurman. Appropriate medications as well as eye drops and vitamins were given to 88 people. Thirty seven women in need of corrective lenses were scheduled to be seen by a volunteer refractionist and prescriptions were sent to Together for Sudan to follow up. Three operations – two for bone malformation/obstruction and one for glaucoma – were scheduled. TfS Assistant Project Coordinator Izdihar reports that there are currently 180 children living with their mothers in the prison. The majority of the imprisoned women will have been arrested for brewing beer which is illegal but often the only way displaced and impoverished families can provide for their children. A second TfS Eye Care Outreach involving over 100 people was held by Dr. Shadia Alkhir Alshafia in Haj Yusuf outside Khartoum also in October.

Lillian

Fr Giovanni Vantini

All friends of Sudan mourn the passing of Father Giovanni Vantini, for nearly 60 years one of the leading scholars in the rich field of Sudanese studies.  TfS Trustee, Herman Bell, has generously launched a fund in Father Vantini’s memory, to support the educational work of Together for Sudan. Contributions will be greatly appreciated. Donate on line here or go to our Donate page for other options. 

Herman has also written the following tribute:

Father Giovanni Vantini was inspired by the extensive history of Christianity in the Sudan and spent most of his life serving the people of the Sudan. He is remembered with affection by his Muslim and Christian friends and students.

Father Vantini was born in Villafranca di Verona on 1 January 1923. He was ordained a priest in 1947, trained in Arabic and sent to the Sudan. There he spent 58 years, teaching in schools established by the Comboni missionaries, working in parish churches and St. Matthew’s Cathedral (Khartoum), engaging in journalistic endeavours such as Assalam [Peace], a bi-weekly journal launched at the time of independence in 1956, and conducting research on the history of the Church along the Nile for most of the past 2000 years. In 2005, he published La Missione del Cuore - I comboniani in Sudan nel ventesimo secolo [The Mission of the Heart – The Comboni Missionaries in Sudan in the Twentieth Century] (Bologna). In spite of ill health in his final years he managed to achieve the publication of Rediscovering Christian Nubia (Khartoum) in 2009. He died in Verona on the 3rd of May 2011 at the age of 87.

His command of Arabic was a vital skill for the production of his Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia (Heidelberg & Warsaw, 1975), an important companion study to the historical and archaeological work in which he was involved at that time in the Nile Valley. He wrote one of his major publications in Arabic: Ta' rikh al-masihiyya fi-l mamalik al-Nubiyya al-qadima wa-l- Sudan al-hadith [The History of Christianity in the Old Nubian Kingdoms and the Modern Sudan] (Khartoum, 1978).

In the colloquial Arabic of the Sudan there is a relevant expression of condolence which is widely used:   al-baraka fiikum ‘Blessing upon you.’ Death reminds us of the great store of blessing that is available to us all. ‘Blessed be those who mourn for they shall be comforted.’

Saint Anna, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
 Faras Cathedral.

Father Vantini was admired as a scholar and a man of faith. He was also a kind and generous friend. Even though the Canticle of the Creatures was composed almost 700 years before his birth by Saint Francis, the following verses still seem particularly appropriate.

Altissimu, onnipotente bon Signore,
Tue so le laude la gloria e l'honore
et onne benedictione.
………
Laudato si', mi Signore, per sora nostra Morte corporale,
da la quale nullu homo vivente po skappare,
………
Laudate et benedicete mi Signore et rengratiate
et serviteli cun grande humilitate.


Good Lord, most high and almighty,
To thee be praises, glory, honour and all blessings.
………
Be praised, my Lord, for our sister bodily death
From whom no human being can escape.
………
Praise and bless my Lord; thank Him,
And serve Him with great humility.

By Herman Bell - TfS Trustee.

A Response to Hunger and Courage

Without giving away any names or information I would just like to say that the educational needs of David and Tony have been met and I am enormously grateful that this has happened. Together for Sudan is
grateful for every donation that we receive, whether for a specific project or for our general funds that allow us the flexibility to help people such as David and Tony in this way. These two now have a chance at a future that they did not have before.

Website Updated

It's been a while since my last blog entry but a lot has been happening behind the scenes and the Together for Sudan website has been updated with some interesting new articles. There are letters from some of our University Students and also notes from our new vocational scholarship apprentices. There is an appeal for this project which is on the homepage and a general appeal because as always there is never enough money to do all the things that need doing. If you've been reading the TfS blog you will know all about Adrian and his coming marathon - please support this if you can- but you may not know about a young lady in Bristol called Marie who ran a half marathon and raised over £300 for us. Thank you Marie, you're a hero.











Because of this we are inviting people to do the same. Create a Just Giving page, do something and raise some cash to help with the work we do. Become a TfS hero. If enough people do it I'll make a hero gallery page on the website. See our charity Just Giving page here.

All the pages mentioned above are connected by hyperlink so just click on any one of them to learn more or click here if you want to know more about being a hero. The picture I have included is of the Together for Sudan office staff in Khartoum, they manage all the good work that Together for Sudan does, they are my heroes.

Dave Lewis