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Providing access to credit for low-income people, NEF established a network of community-based credit funds in both urban and rural communities in selected areas across Sudan. Beneficiaries included Adam, 40-years-old, married, and the father of five children, who used his loan to buy three goats to produce milk to be sold in his shop located in his house. Now Adam has seven goats, and in addition, the loan helped stock the shop's shelves. To date, 16 funds are operational, providing loans ranging from $50 to $700 for small enterprises and income-generating opportunities.
With 500 loans per cycle and two cycles per year, the NEF credit project can directly benefit about 3,500 people a year. As funds support additional loans and cover more borrowers, they create yet more opportunities for increased household income and jobs from micro-enterprises and income-generating activities.
In the outskirts of Greater Khartoum where about 45,000 Sudanese have escaped war and drought and now live in desperate poverty, NEF continued emphasizing healthcare, particularly maternal-child health and family planning. The only health center available for the entire settlement, in 2005 general services—diagnosis, primary care, lab tests, a pharmacy—were expanded to include labor and delivery as well as advanced laboratory work.
Given the strong need for community awareness about reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases, NEF responded with an outreach program of home visitation, teaching both primary and reproductive health care. Women have been trained in nutrition and hygiene, as midwives and home visitors, benefiting thousands of families. With this project NEF is designing a widely-replicable health management information system and establishing a sustainable pricing model for reproductive health care in low-income areas—a big achievement.
While health is the centerpiece of NEF's involvement, other vital initiatives were undertaken over the past year to improve quality of life and give hope to people who have lost everything. They live in this deprived squatter settlement 40 kms from the capital city and, according to our two-year survey, are most in need among the estimated two million displaced Sudanese in Greater Khartoum. NEF's multi-faceted assistance included:
• rehabilitating and equipping the community's only school;
• improving water supply and quality;
• child sponsorship meeting basic needs of poorest children;
• food distribution to neediest families during Ramadan and Eid holidays.
CLICK HERE FOR A DETAILED PROGRAM OVERVIEW OF SUDAN (ANNUAL REPORT 2005)
CLICK HERE FOR OUR LATEST STORIES FROM THE FIELD IN SUDAN
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