Kadugli Office Update

It is a great sadness that the TfS office in Kadugli, South Kordofan, has been closed since fighting swept across the area in early June.  None of our colleagues were injured but among items looted from our Kadugli office was a very expensive microscope essential for eye surgery during Eye Care Outreach. We remain hopeful that the microscope will be returned and that  – working through the Kadugli office – we may be able to continue Eye Care Outreach in the Kadugli hospital. We hope that a colleague from our Khartoum office will be able to visit Kadugli soon.  Meanwhile, our loyal guard, who was sent away by soldiers before the looting, is back in the office for which we had paid rent for several months in advance.  However, our TfS Field Representative is now working in the Khartoum office.  Alan and I were denied permission to go to Kadugli on our recent trip.
  
Lillian Craig Harris - TfS Director

Together for Sudan in the Nuba Mountains - click here to learn more

A group of trainees outside the TfS Kadugli office and project centre 

Lambeth Palace Event Thanks

The Sudanese Ambassador attended

The TfS fundraising event at London’s Lambeth Palace was a major success – and also great fun. Lady Patey and Dr. Christine Green arranged the event with excellent support from Lambeth Palace.  Over 8,000 sterling was raised, some 4,600 during the auction of promises. The Barbershop Quartet, which has sung for us on several occasions, was another highlights of the event and I avoided creating a third highlight by not falling off the ladder which I climbed to give a short speech.  Together for Sudan is enormously grateful to Lambeth Palace personnel for their assistance and hospitality. TfS Patron Archbishop Rowan Williams was in Africa and thus unable to attend the event. 


Lillian's comments at the event


Read the report on our website

A Trip to Juba

During an early October visit to Sudan  Alan and I make a quick trip to Juba, now the capital of South Sudan.   Two of our substantive staff from Khartoum, including  Deputy Country Coordinator Victor, had moved to Juba and we hoped to check out how feasible it might be to expand TfS work to South Sudan. We were impressed by the vitality of the new state and the need for literacy training for women, HIV/AIDS Awareness outreach and other work  which would fit our projects.  Although TfS has at present no funding to begin working in Juba we would welcome all donations to do so!


Lillian Craig Harris

Donate to our work online here

Go to our Donate web page to see other options

Lambeth Palace Comments

Lillian Craig Harris, director of Together for Sudan spoke at our recent charity auction in Lambeth palace London. Her comments are replicated below.

11 October 2011

Lillian speaking at the event

Good evening and thank you for joining Together for Sudan for this fundraising event which is also a celebration of our service to the Sudanese people.  I am grateful to Together for Sudan Patron Archbishop Rowan Williams and his staff for inviting us here this evening even though the Archbishop is currently in Africa.

Many thanks are due as well to Dr. Christine Green and to Lady Patey for the many hours they have spent organizing this event.  And, of course, special thanks to Peter Arbuthnot, our auctioneer, and to member of the Barbershop Quartet who have sung for us on several occasions.  I am also grateful to fellow Together for Sudan Trustees Norman Swanney and Adrian Thomas as well as to Dave Lewis, the Together for Sudan webmaster, who publicised this event. And, of course, my great appreciation to all our helpers and supporters, especially you who are here this evening.

Together for Sudan has been a blessed charity since it began in the late 1990s.  Our educational and health care projects remain in great demand in the Khartoum area and in South Kordofan where we have a second office in Kadugli.  However, the charity presently faces severe financial difficulties as well as disruption of our work due to violence in South Kordofan. Our Kadugli office has been closed since early June due to fighting and subsequent looting of our office there.  We also face the challenge of recent loss of southern colleagues who have left Khartoum for South Sudan with the birth of that new nation.

Alan and I arrived in the UK yesterday after visits to both Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and Juba, the capital of the new nation of South Sudan.  We are invited to begin work in South Sudan and even have there two former colleagues from our Khartoum office who would gladly work for us in Juba.  The needs and opportunities are enormous and we lack only the necessary funding. Today many people are reaching out to help South Sudan but relatively few are engaged directly with the critically important education of women and children.

Sudan’s present circumstances are the greatest challenge which Together for Sudan has faced in our more than 15 years of service to the Sudanese people. From the beginning – and at the request of Sudanese women – the work which became Together for Sudan has brought Muslims and Christians together in service to the poor. We hope to continue this work because it is a peace building gift which Muslims and Christians can give to one another. Our basic intent is to cross tribal, religious and social barriers in order to make peace by demonstrating that people of different faiths and backgrounds can work together to help other people in need.

This is who we are and what we believe.

In our present circumstances of combined peril and opportunity, I am reminded of my mother who was a missionary nurse and loved people of all sorts, mothers and babies in particular.  Mom taught me to look on, rather than look away from, the suffering of others.  When there were difficult times and seemingly insurmountable obstacles she would say, “Sometimes you just have to do it!”  And then she would get busy helping.

So what would she do if she were here today?  I think that she would reach out to desperate Sudanese women who long for education for themselves and their children.  Several years ago when I asked displaced women in Darfur what they needed they cried out “Teach us to read and we will help ourselves!”  With that mandate, Together for Sudan carries on although several of our projects are currently unfunded and the future is not clear.

Thank you for joining us at this critically important time for all Sudanese people.  It remains extremely important that we as individuals ask ourselves “Am I my sister’s keeper?”  And that we respond positively.  Thank you all for being with us tonight.  Enjoy!

LILLIAN CRAIG HARRIS, Director  .

Read about the event on our website here

A Story on Vocational Training Scholars

Displaced families face a daily struggle to survive on the outskirts of Khartoum, where there is lack of running water, electricity, or healthcare. In spite of these harsh conditions, young people in these areas are determined to gain qualifications and lift themselves out of poverty. We felt this determination while we were supervising them during their year of study and it was obvious in their results where all our 21 vocational scholars passed the exam with very good grades. We have sixteen scholars in Alfiha centre, two in Vocational Training Centre No (1), and three in St. Joseph Centre.

Vocational Scholars learn while tackling a practical challenge.

The majority of our scholars (fourteen students) study Electricity, five study Mechanics and one each auto electricity, and refrigeration and air-conditioning.  It is worth mentioning that even our two scholars who couldn’t attend the exam because of medical problems, sat the exam later and gained good results. Their success shows that people whose lives were devastated by war in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and South Sudan are hungry to learn and they just need guidance, support, and care to achieve their dreams.  Thanks to the Gordon Memorial College Trust Fund for financing this project!

The TfS Vocational Scholarship Project

Eye Care Results

This lady has Pterygium 

Our eye care team led by the indefatigable Dr Nabila Radi continued their excellent work for the displaced around Khartoum in September.  At outreaches in squatter areas north of Omdurman on 11 September and south of Khartoum on the 29th, she saw 232 patients, 141 of them women and 7 children.  In the second outreach there were an unusually large number of advanced cases of glaucoma, sadly diagnosed as beyond effective treatment.  The patients concerned were given drops as a palliative.  In all 118 patients received medicines, 20 were referred for operations, 48 received glasses and 76 will have further tests to determine the lenses they need.  Thanks to Dr Nabila for all she does to help.

Sadly this boy's eye must be removed

But there is no sign of the demand for these services diminishing.  How much more could be done if we only had more resources!

The TfS Eye Care Project

Please donate to our work even small donations add up !

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.

News from Kadugli

The news from Kadugli in the Nuba Mountains is less good.  The TFS office there remains closed, its work is suspended and there is no news of the stolen operating microscope and solar panels.  And we have just heard that the Sudanese authorities have turned down a request from the Director to visit Kadugli because of continuing insecurity in the town.

News from Khartoum

Good news from Khartoum is in short supply these days.  But we were cheered by the success of our last two eye care outreaches in the Khartoum displaced areas just before the Eid.  A total of 265 patients were seen by our doctor and 43 referred to hospitals for operations, to be performed this month.  Thanks to Dark and Light, our generous sponsors for this project.

Letters of thanks

Some of the Together for Sudan University Graduates have recently written letters of appreciation and thanks for the support that they received in gaining and passing their University courses. They are all very grateful for the opportunity of making a difference to Sudan and improving the lives of those around them. See their words on our website.

• A letter from Alia
• A letter from Hawa
• A letter from Hana
• A letter from Asia

Furniture Found

Better news from Kadugli in that some of the furniture looted from the TFS office on 21 June has been returned, thanks primarily to good local police work.  But the eye care microscope and solar panels are still missing.  However the situation in the town is still too insecure to permit the office to resume work.  Let us pray that the holy month of Ramadan, which is about to begin, will ease the tensions there.

All in the day’s work for Dr Nabila

We have just received reports on two eye care outreaches held earlier this month, in a poor suburb of Omdurman and the North Khartoum district of Haj Yousif.  In all 229 patients were seen, 17 operations recommended, 30 pairs of glasses distributed and over 100 patients received eye drops or other medicines.  All in the day’s work for Dr Nabila but what a busy two days!

A start to fundraising in the USA.

With pending, and now achieved, federal permission to fundraise in the United States, Friends Together for Sudan has made a giant step forward.  Already Alan and I have lectured about Sudan and the work of Together for Sudan at Malloy College in New York and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Mclean, Virginia.  And Alan did a splendid job informing American Friends of the Episcopal Church in Sudan about Sudanese history and present difficulties facing the Sudanese people.  It took two years for Friends Together for Sudan to gain official approval to introduce itself in the US, but now here we are all dressed up and looking for more opportunities to spread the word.  
Give us a call at this address or email us at lilliancharris@gmail.co, or afglch@verizon.net.

TfS Colleagues Go South

Together for Sudan’s friends and trustees join TfS field workers in mourning the loss of three colleagues who have decided to leave for South Sudan as a result of the 9 July division of Sudan into two countries. Deputy Country Coordinator Victor has already left for Juba and accountant Minalla and Messenger/cleaner Rina plan to leave as soon as transportation is available.  Our sadness at the loss of these valued friends and co-workers is overwhelming.  I ask the one God of Christians and Muslims to comfort, guide and protect all our Sudanese coworkers and supporters at this time of enormous change and uncertainty.      

TfS Kadugli Office Looted

Under pretext of an imminent air raid, TfS office guard Nazar was warned by soldiers to leave the Kadugli office.  When he returned some time later he found the office stripped of computers, furniture, safe, files and all other moveable equipment. Most other NGO and INGO offices had already been looted.  We are enormously grateful to Nazar for staying at his post as long as possible despite the threatening situation.   

The Nuba People return to war

Together for Sudan’s office in Kadugli has been closed since early June following an outbreak of heavy fighting in South Kordofan between government forces and the Nuba peole.  TfS Field Coordinator Ibrahim was evacuated by UNIMIS with other INGO Forum personnel and subsequently reunited with his family in Wad Medani.  He will work from our Khartoum office for the time being.  Kawther, a TfS university graduate, who was volunteering in the Kadugli office and Fatima, our cleaner/messenger have also reached safe haven.  Fighting continues 

Going Mobile - Text a Donation

From today you will be able to text a donation to Together for Sudan using your mobile phone. This great little innovation makes donating easier than ever before. We receive the whole amount of your donation and if eligible we can also receive Gift Aid from your donation.

Small amounts or large amount don't matter, please give what you can afford. The process is simple:

• Use any mobile phone
• Send a text to 70070
• Text this message with the amount you want to give - i.e. - TFSA01 £10
• Set the value to what you want to give
• Agree to Gift Aid if applicable

It's that easy. Please make a donation to our work and help us do more in Sudan. 

Yoga Challenge Update

We are delighted to let you know that two of our young supporters are undertaking the yoga equivalent of running a marathon in aid of the disadvantaged women of Sudan!


Melinda Bates and Hannah Mitchel (Mel and Han) have set themselves the challenge to practise Bikram Yoga for 30 consecutive days - and all to raise funds for Together for Sudan

Mel and Han are already twenty days into this incredible challenge which will end on the 22nd April! They are going strong and are absolutely committed to complete it for such a worthwhile cause.

For those of you who are not so familiar with what Bikram Yoga entails - Bikram Yoga is a style of yoga developed by Bikram Choudhury, consisting of a series of 26 postures carried out in a heated room that is 40 degrees C, each class lasting 90 minutes!

At the moment they are just over 50% towards their £1,000 fundraising target. It would be terrific if you could help encourage Mel and Han to complete their goal - please do go to their page at our fundraising website:

www.justgiving.com/Melinda-Hannah

Many thanks from all of us at

Together for Sudan

Yoga Challenge to Raise Funds for TfS

We (Mel and Han) have set ourselves the challenge to Practice Bikram Yoga for 30 consecutive days in aid of ‘Together For Sudan’.

For those of you who are not so familiar with what Bikram Yoga entails - Bikram Yoga is a style of yoga developed by Bikram Choudhury and which consists of a series of 26 postures carried out in a heated room that is 40C, each class lasting 90 minutes! We will be starting on the 23rd March and ending on the 22nd April! This will be challenging both mentally and physically for us, but we are absolutely dedicated and committed for such a worthwhile cause.

So dig deep everyone and get Sponsoring!
Click here to make a donation on Mel and Han's Just Giving web page

Our 2010 Annual Report and Accounts

The Charity Commission has acknowledged receipt of our Annual Report & Accounts for the year ended 31 Dec 2010. This completes the trustees' statutory duties for 2010. Phew what a relief !

If you're interested in seeing our report for Together for Sudan's activities coupled with our accounts for the same period look no further. A copy is here to view and share. It can be printed and saved for deeper reading. As you will see this year was not easy but showed that there is still faith in the work of Together for Sudan and much still to do. Make a donation online today and help us reach our 2011 goals. Donate to Together for Sudan online here

Open publication - Free publishing - More accounts