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Vision
“Power to the Powerless through Education”
This describes our hope to secure
a better future for disadvantaged Sudanese women and children by
providing educational support without religious or ethnic
discrimination.
“Building Peace through Service”
To unite
Sudanese of different ethnic and religious backgrounds in community
service for the promotion of community reconciliation.
Background
Sudan is the largest country in
Africa. During the past more than 20 years of conflict at least two
million Sudanese have died and four million have been displaced. Despite
a north-south peace agreement in January 2005, ethnic conflict,
degradation of the natural environment and widespread human suffering
continue and many displaced persons are as yet unprepared to return to
their homelands. The living conditions of hundreds of thousands of
marginalised people in the shanty towns around Khartoum and other
Sudanese cities, including thousands recently displaced from Darfur,
remain inhumane and degrading.
Together for
Sudan, an educational charity, began its work in 1999 in response to the
needs and requests of displaced and marginalized people who live in
poverty in the squatter settlements on Khartoum’s outskirts. TFS was
originally intended as a support charity (school breakfasts, solar
lighting, medical assistance and eye care) for the educational work done
by a sister charity, The Bishop Mubarak Scholarship Fund for Nuba Women,
which began in Sudan in 1996. These charities, both of which were
established by Dr. Lillian Craig Harris, were merged in January 2005.
At present TFS works
almost entirely in the Khartoum area and in the Nuba Mountains of South
Kordofan. Our primary office is in Khartoum and in January 2005 we
opened a sub-office in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan. As more
southern Sudanese return to their homelands, we hope to expand our work
to Southern Sudan and have already begin to assist basic school
education in Juba, capital of the south.
Together for Sudan
takes its lead from what displaced and marginalised people say they need
and seeks to help those whose lives have been shattered by war and
displacement prepare for a better future through education. Equally
important, TFS is committed to ethnic, religious and social
reconciliation through shared community service. Our donors, patrons,
employees and volunteers include Muslims and Christians.
Scope.
By its charter, TFS may work anywhere in Sudan and hopes to expand both
its projects and its geographical reach as funding and management
allow. Any appropriate project or programme which educates or supports
the education of Sudanese women and children living in Sudan is within
our scope including technical, vocational, medical and paramedical
training. Male children may benefit from Together for Sudan but adult
male education is outside the TFS mandate as are theological education
and education outside Sudan.
Together for Sudan
Projects
*Women’s literacy
classes
*University
scholarships in Sudan
*Hostel for
university students
*Payment of teachers’
salaries in self-help schools for displaced children
*Scholarships for
children whose families are HIV/AIDS afflicted
*Facilitating the
return of TFS university graduates to South Kordofan as teachers
* Solar lighting
panels for literacy classes, community centres and clinics
*School breakfasts
for basic and kindergarten children
*Simple medical care,
in particular for women and children, through the TFS Medicine
Box and Eye Care
Outreach projects
*HIV/AIDS Awareness
Outreach to increase community awareness and to support
people living with
HIV/AIDS
TFS Values Include
*Education as a
human right
*The empowerment
of women for a better future
*Response to what
marginalised people, women in particular, say they need
*Respect for
people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds
*Personal and
community empowerment through service
*Promotion of
volunteerism
*Provision of
basic medical and other logistical support for education
*Combating
HIV/AIDS through education
Target Groups
*Marginalised,
displaced and illiterate Sudanese women
*Marginalised and
displaced young women seeking university education in Sudan
*Children from
destitute or displaced families
*Communities with no
affordable medical resources
*Teachers in
self-help basic schools
*Community
organisations in settlements for displaced persons
*People living with
HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS orphans
Achievements
*Women’s literacy
classes now at 40 sites in Khartoum and the Nuba Mountains
*Graduation of more
than 2,250 women from literacy classes between 1998 and 2006
*Enrolment of 260 TFS
scholars in Khartoum universities in 2006
*Graduation of 90 TFS
scholars (all women) from Khartoum universities by late 2006
*Payment of 90 basic
and kindergarten teachers’ salaries in 32 schools in 2006
*100 scholarships for
AIDS orphans
*Return of more than
40 university graduates to the Nuba Mountains as teachers
*Hostel for
university scholars now in sixth year
*Establishment of
university graduates association
*Installation of 17
solar panels in support of education
*Examination of 3,000
individuals yearly by the Eye Care Project which also provides free reading
glasses, medicines and eye surgery
*Provision of basic
medicines to communities in Khartoum area, Gedaref and the Nuba Mountains with no
other access to health services
*Breakfast project
for children at 10 self-help basic schools in the Khartoum area and at
the Kadugli Girls Secondary School
*Unique HIV/AIDS
Awareness project which reaches over 15,000 people each year in the
Khartoum vicinity
New Projects
*Major new project
for teacher training and promotion of women’s literacy and children’s basic
education in the Nuba Mountains started in January 2006
*Major new project
for teacher training and promotion of women’s literacy and basic education scheduled
to begin in mid-2006 in the Khartoum area settlements for the displaced
*Plans to train
teachers and open women’s literacy classes in Darfur by end 2006
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