Together for Sudan The Bishop Mubarak Fund

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2010

www.togetherforsudan.orgRegistered UK Charity No 1075852

Dear Friends of Sudan,Fifteen years ago in Khartoum, a group of Muslim women asked me to find some Christian Sudanese women for them to talk with about peace. Subsequent meetings between Muslim and Christian women involved recognition of common suffering, common aspirations and common dilemmas. As facilitator of that search for sisterhood and reconciliation, I was deeply impressed by the healing power of forgiveness. Eventually Together for Sudan grew out of that work. Today we are Muslims and Christians working together to help build a peaceful future for Sudan through education, mainly of women and children.

Misunderstanding and antagonism between Christians and Muslims are today among the world’s most dangerous dilemmas and there is much which all of us could learn from those courageous Sudanese women who met to acknowledge “The differences which unite us”. They understood that to forgive, to try to understand, is to open yourself not to vulnerability but to empowerment. Their self-giving spirit lives on in what can only be called a “dialogue of service”. Together for Sudan’s mandate is to empower people through education and, where possible, put them into service to one another.

“What we need is forgiveness upgrading”, a southern Sudanese woman once told me. The Sudanese are fond of talking about “self help” when it is necessary for broken communities of people from various areas of Sudan to try to take educational and health care needs into their own hands. In this dialogue of service to one another, “forgiveness upgrading” inevitably occurs. It is difficult to hate someone when you are working side by side on behalf of others. Wherever possible, Together for Sudan is there to help this positive interchange happen. Forgiveness does not mean closing our eyes to the dilemmas and differences which surround us. But it does help to open our eyes to mutual opportunities for understanding and service. To forgive is to plug into power, not compromise.

Together for Sudan is still functioning despite a continuing shortfall in funding. I have just returned from ten days in Sudan during which I visited our projects in both the Khartoum area and in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan. The work of Together for Sudan is needed now more than ever and your support is much appreciated. Thank you for standing with us in the ‘dialogue of service’.

Power to the powerless through education Building peace through service

Street boys rescued by another charity in Khartoum wait to see the Together for Sudan

ophthalmologist

Displaced children in Gardut, South Kordofan

Displaced children at Mayo squatter settlement outside

Khartoum

TOGETHER FOR SUDAN’S SUB-OFFICE IN KADUGLI, THE NUBA MOUNTAINS

South Kordofan, a long neglected and underprivileged area, has always been of significant interest to Together for Sudan. In the beginning, all young women who received our university scholarships were from the Nuba Mountains. Today more than 30 of our university graduates are back in the area, many of them working for UN and other humanitarian agencies. Lack of schools and medical facilities as well as inadequate infrastructure, a difficult climate and political unrest all characterize the area. In 2005 TfS opened a field office in this fragile and volatile area between northern and southern Sudan.

Today our work in South Kordofan centers mainly on the capital city of Kadugli in the Nuba Mountains due as much to monitoring difficulties over often ungraded roads as to limited funding. A present trend for international funding agencies to prefer to fund work in South Kordofan, Darfur and southern Sudan rather than in the Khartoum area has accelerated our efforts to work in the Kadugli area. Already South Kordofan has benefitted from our efforts. Together for Sudan is the only supplier in the Nuba Mountains of Eye Care Outreach and of HIV/AIDS Awareness training. During May we held an Eye Care outreach in Abu Jebeiha, examining 1,063 patients, removing the cataracts of 252, providing reading glasses to 292, giving medications for various conditions to 896 and referring 10 for further medical help in Khartoum. Likewise TfS has pioneered in South Kordofan in the training of basic and kindergarten teachers. The latter has led to the opening of at least 20 kindergartens in the Kadugli area and to a state government decision that no child may enter basic school without first passing through kindergarten.

While I was in Kadugli in late May a health care course for primary teachers was in full swing in our Kadugli centre and teacher training in other areas was being planned. Among our other success stories is the placement of 13 solar panels in clinics and community centres (These are so popular that several have been stolen and we are having to replace them!). The needs of the Nuba people are enormous and with your help we can do so much more.

OUR MAN IN KADUGLI: Ibrahim Ahmed Jabir

Ibrahim has been the TfS Field Representative in our Kadugli office for less than two years but has already made a major impact on the community.

Following him around Kadugli for meetings with various officials and agencies, I quickly understood why he has gained the respect of TfS partners and local government officials. Born in the Nuba Mountains, Ibrahim knows the history and politics of South Kordofan, the needs of the people and their widespread resentment against outside domination.

Ibrahim, who is married and has several children, was an SPLA soldier during the last civil war. Having also spent five years in Italy, he speaks Italian as well as Arabic and English. His skills as a certified electrician are frequently in demand and have added to his local popularity.

(From left) TfS Field Representative Ibrahim Ahmed Jabir, TfS Deputy Country Coordinator Victor Gali Thomas and Kadugli Red Crescent Director Mireikha Yaheya. The Sudanese Red Crescent, one of our local partners in Kadugli, often loans its vehicles to Together for Sudan for our Eye Care Outreach.

MAJOR TOGETHER FOR SUDAN PRIORITIES OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARSContinue to expand our flagship University Scholarships for Women Project and explore ways to involve our • university scholars and graduates in other Together for Sudan educational work.

Expand TfS work in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan.•

In the Khartoum area concentrate on educational work (as opposed to educational support such as solar panels).•

Expand our relatively new and much sought after Vocational Training Project.•

Increase and strengthen staff in both Khartoum and Kadugli offices.•

Decide when/if Together for Sudan should expand into Southern Sudan.•

Increase fundraising, seeking in particular for sustaining donors and unrestricted funds.•

Complete registration of Friends Together for Sudan as a fundraising charity in the United States (We have been • working on this now for over a year).

JOHNNY AND GEORGEThe sudden death of Together for Sudan

Patron Johnny Bodourian, a long time resident of Sudan, in December 2009 has saddened all who knew him. We have lost a loved and loyal friend who for several years supported our work whenever I visited by providing a vehicle to facilitate project monitoring in both the Khartoum area and South Kordofan.

George Pagoulatos, proprietor of Khartoum’s famous Acropole Hotel and for many years Johnny’s close friend, has stepped into the gap as a new TfS Patron. In memory of Johnny, during my May visit George paid for my transportation in Khartoum as well as in South Kordofan.

Thank you, George, for this tribute to Johnny by continuing support for Together for Sudan’s life enhancing work. And thank you, Johnny and Koky, for your many years support for Together for Sudan.

George Pagoulatos at the Acropole Hotel, Khartoum.

Soliman, for several years a TfS literacy teacher in the Khartoum area, works with a class on how to create teaching aids

A group of our experienced teachers discuss how best to integrate our projects in ten selected basic schools in the Khartoum area.

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With appreciation for your support,

Lillian Craig Harris OBEDirector

P.S. Help us save postage by emailing our newsletters!Send your email address to: adrianpthomas@btinternet.com

And do please help sustain our work by signing the enclosed Gift Aid and/or Standing Order form. Make cheques payable to Together for Sudan and post to Norman Swanney, 33 Balmoral Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 OJS,England. U.S. dollar cheques should be made payable to The Bishop Mubarak Fund and sent to the same address.To donate by CREDIT or DEBIT CARD go online atwww.togetherforsudan.org/donate.htm and click on

Dear TFS supporters

Many thanks to all our fantastic dedicated and loyal supporters for helping us to weather the economic storm. We’re still battling to find funding for some of our crucial projects and to keep our Sudanese co-workers ‘Together IN Sudan’ but our cash flow has improved since the dark days of 2009.

Nonetheless, two of our projects have been inactive for several weeks and we have not been able to replace two employees who resigned. The majority of our Sudanese colleagues in the Khartoum and Kadugli offices have stayed with us despite our inability to raise their salaries in response to rising inflation in Sudan. To them in particular I express my great admiration and gratitude.

To you all I say thank you on behalf of the suffering Sudanese people whose education and better future is our mandate. Working together we can get through this difficult time.

What more can you do for TFS? Well my dream is still to sign up another 180 or so people to give £10 per month and you are such an inspiring lot, I never know what the post will bring...

Norman Swanney, TfS treasurer

Kadugli: Two TfS university graduates now working in the Nuba Mountains and one of our

university scholars.

Working in Sudan : Our Educational and Educational Support ProjectsUniversity Scholarships: Supporting young women at

Sudanese universitiesVocational Training: New funding now available

Women Literacy Project:

Currently lacks funding Solar lighting: Now refocused on the Kadugli area

Teacher Training & Support:

Critically underfunded Eye Care Outreach: In great demand and functioning well

Basic School Scholarships:

Sponsoring basic and secondary schooling for HIV/AIDS affected children

HIV/AIDS Awareness Outreach:

Funding neededHas reached some 54,000 people