- Lillian speaks to AFRECS in the USA
I am grateful for this opportunity to introduce you to Together for
Sudan, a small educational charity born some 15 years ago in Khartoum.
Among our several objectives we seek to bring Christians and Muslims
together in service to impoverished, displaced, uneducated and ignored
fellow citizens, many of whom are also without hope for a better future.
We are in process of registration as an American, as well as a Sudanese
and British, charity.
Usually in speaking about TfS I have concentrated on how our work began
in 1995 in respond to what Sudanese people, women in particular, said
they needed. These included the wife of an Episcopal pastor in the Nuba
Mountains who asked if I could help her daughter attend university. Soon
afterwards other young women requested similar help. Then came requests
for educational support such as solar panels and a mobile library. The
small projects which were eventually integrated into a charity known
today as Together for Sudan were not at all complicated although the
work was certainly varied.
I remain astonished that while my husband Alan Goulty was British
Ambassador to Sudan in the mid-1990s, I was able, with the help of
Sudanese volunteers, many of them women, to set up six projects: The
Bishop Mubarak Fund which sent young women to university, a mobile
library, a solar lighting project, an English Language Foundation, The
Women’s Action Group which eventually opened a women’s centre and,
finally, Befrienders Khartoum which provided listening therapy to
despairing and suicidal people. Returning to the British Residence in
the evening Alan used to ask me “What new project did you set up today?”
I think of that time with wonder although I was too busy to understand
what an extraordinary experience I was living through in the company of
Muslim and Christian women. While it was happening I felt enormously
grateful for the opportunity. Today, some 15 years on, I understand that
time as an outbreak of grace in my life, a time of special support.
But the work which became Together for Sudan never belonged to me. When
my husband and I were withdrawn from Sudan after the 20 August 1998
American bombing of a pharmaceutical factory at Shifa just outside
Khartoum, I suffered intensely over the people and work which I had left
behind. It is sometimes easier to work on the front line than to be
forced to accept that the people you love must be left to manage on
their own. Which they did very well! Meanwhile, I was consoled that
behind the need which Christian and Muslim Sudanese women felt to reach
out to one another, there moved the loving hand of God. And I count
myself among those who benefitted most.
By early 1999, with me back in London, The Bishop Mubarak Fund
(educational projects) and Together for Sudan (educational support
projects) were incorporated as registered British charities and
fundraising had begun. Eventually several of the projects failed, due
mainly to lack of local leadership, although the Women’s Action Group
and Befrienders Khartoum both remained active for several years.
Meanwhile, a number of new projects such as teacher training, vocational
scholarships, Eye Care Outreach, scholarships for AIDS orphans and
HIV/AIDS Awareness Outreach were set up. The late Bishop Mubarak had
inspired me to help Nuba women through education and relatives of the
bishop initially agreed that we might use his name. Sadly, however, a
desire to control the scholarship funding resulted in threats of
violence against our Sudanese colleagues and in 2004 the educational
work of the Bishop Mubarak Fund was folded into Together for Sudan. Our
mottos remain “Power to the Powerless Through Education” and “Building
Peace Through Service”.
Although I shall share with you some of my ideas about how to set up and
run a small Sudanese-British charity – which is soon to be an American
registered charity as well -- I cannot tell you how Together for Sudan
has survived other than “by grace”.
Where are we now? Since 2001 I have been
able to return to Sudan at least twice a year and today we have offices
in Khartoum and Kadugli. We have no paid workers other than our eleven
Sudanese colleagues in the TfS offices in Khartoum and Kadugli, no
vehicles or property other than a few battered desks, chairs and
computers, no access to the internet in the Nuba Mountains, periodic
difficulties from “security” authorities and low funding reserves. But
we are blessed with loyal and competent, although poorly paid, Sudanese
colleagues and the friendship and trust of the underprivileged
communities in which we work -- as I saw again when I visited Khartoum
and Kadugli in May.
Together for Sudan projects have provided in-service training to
hundreds of teachers, supplied over 500 university scholarships in
Sudan, reached some 15,000 people with AIDS awareness information,
helped over 10,000 people with eye surgery and/or glasses through our
Eye Care Outreach, benefitted thousands of children over several years
by paying teachers’ salaries as a means to keep 24 self-help schools
open, supplied solar lighting panels to many schools and clinics, and,
two years ago, launched a vocational training project. We do all this in
response to local demand.
Practical Points.
There are a number of practical ideas and objectives which have
supported Together for Sudan through the years and which may be helpful
to other small charities. Each of us can ask ourselves what we as
individuals or as members of a small group can do to help others. In the
Khartoum area and in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan many people
are in great need of the education and other services which outsiders
can offer. There are ways to find a role and ways to offer help. The
following list reflects the Together for Sudan experience.
*Listen to what women say they need. That
was and is our starting point and the biggest key I can offer. The
education of women is our first and most important priority. As women in
Darfur recently reminded me, “Teach us to read and we will help
ourselves!”
*Look for niches of pain and suffering
occupied by individuals such as the illiterate, orphans, widows, victims
of HIV/AIDS. There are many current areas of need which, so far as I
know, are not being sufficiently addressed among the poor and displaced
in northern Sudan. These include cleft palate, diabetes (some 40 percent
of the patients who attend our Eye Care Outreach), albinos (who need sun
glasses and sun screen), disabled people, amputees and others in need of
wheelchairs, and others.
Remember, however, that education remains the greatest general need. You
can’t go wrong there although careful management of funds is critically
important.
*Start small Make sure the project has a
chance for sustainability when outside funding stops. For example,
sewing machines are not a good idea if there is not a market for home
made clothing.
*Avoid putting temptation in front of
impoverished people. Most are reliable but circumstances can change
individuals. What would you do if your mother were dying, you had no
money for medicine and a foreigner asked you to carry cash to the next
village?
*Remember that poverty corrupts, so be
practical. If cheated, be forgiving.
*Listen carefully to what community
leaders describe as their difficulties and enlist them where possible as
supporters.
*Adhere to Sudanese law and be courteous
to local government officials. Many of them are good people and may
endorse or protect your work. But keep your ideas on local politics to
yourself.
*Never pay or accept bribes (If you think
the gift may be a bribe, it probably is).
*Insist on financial accountability.
Transfer funding through banks, not through individuals, if at all
possible. Remember that pooled funds seldom work in broken communities,
as we have learned in the settlements for displaced persons outside
Khartoum.
*Keep alert and shut down projects/work
which becomes unproductive due to changing circumstances.
*Bring Christians and Muslims together in
service to the poor. In northern Sudan this helps to safeguard project
longevity and strengthens your organization’s position with the
authorities. It is also – I am convinced – greatly pleasing to God.
*Cultivate local patrons, including both
Muslims and Christians. And, of course, wherever possible include both
Christians and Muslims as beneficiaries.
*Finally, northern Sudan offers a unique
venue for Christian/Muslim reconciliation among the poor and the
displaced as well as among northern intellectuals and other open minded
Christians and Muslims.
Working with Muslims can enables us as Christians to see the positive,
constructive face of Islam, as well as the working of God through Islam.
It can also allow Muslims to see God’s grace at work through Christians.
As a Sudanese woman once told me, “What we Sudanese need is forgiveness
upgrading”. And that is what we Americans need as well.
Lillian Craig Harris. Director, Together for Sudan -
(click here
to learn more)
What you can do: Donations in any amount are much
appreciated. But please consider whether you are able to support work
such as this – and contribute to maintaining peace in Sudan – by
providing regular donations. Regular donations allow us to plan ahead
and work more effectively.
Contact us now :-
enquiries@togetherforsudan