Rosa and Martina at Juba University

Rosa and Martina are willing to work hard to succeed

Rosa ( left ) came south from Khartoum in the middle of her science studies. She wants to be a microbiologist but the course is hard as there are hardly any facilities  for practical work at the university. However, now in her fourth year, she is a strong person and on her own found  work experience in the laboratory of the  South Sudan Beverage Company at the brewery. Her advice to her sister Women's Education Partnership scholars " Be serious about your studies and don't  give up."

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

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

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

Khartoum Changes

One of the challenges facing a small charity is to keep down the inescapable overhead costs.  Our Khartoum team have just made a useful contribution through finding a new office, smaller than the previous one but adequate, in better condition and at a lower rent.  It is in the same area of the city known as Khartoum 3.  Here is a snap of the outside and one of Rasha in her office interviewing one of the TfS university scholars.

Sadly Rasha is leaving us at the end of September to return to England.  We shall miss her great contribution especially to the drafting of project reports and of notes for this site.  We wish her well in whatever she decides to do next.