NEF (Near East Foundation) -- 2007 Annual Report -- Country Report; Sudan

NEF-Sudan is feeling a sense of satisfaction as the 2006-07 year concludes. Our investments in Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa over the past few years are coming to fruition. While only a few residents were initially involved in project support groups, larger numbers of more experienced leaders are now emerging to carry the work forward.

What began in 2001 as a series of small-scale individual activities in one community is now converging, creating possibilities for large-scale, more systematic programs and their replication in similar communities in the country.

We have been involved with a number of similar local communities and are beginning to expand our activities based on the integrated model created In Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa. Here people are working together to rebuild their lives and livelihoods and to build a new community in an unfamiliar and often hostile environment. Our challenge is how to help them help themselves. As you will see from this past year's events, the possibilities are exciting!

AREA OF CONCENTRATION

Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa consists of 35,000 displaced people who having fled war and drought at home and now find themselves poverty stricken and settled in isolated semi-arid lands on the outskirts of Khartoum--and largely abandoned. They have no electricity, little access to water, inadequate transportation, and few available public services. From diverse tribes and varied socio-cultural backgrounds, they are a microcosm of larger, multi-cultural Sudan.

After assessing community needs and priorities, NEF first established a Community Health Center that has since made possible significant improvements in healthcare. Later activities enhanced livelihoods with micro-credit, assisted elementary schools and adult literacy and helped community leaders improve their skills and practice good governance.

NEF is now helping to support an elected Popular Council, Parent Teacher Association (PTA), a newly registered non-governmental organization (NGO), and a variety of local self-help committees dealing with health, income-generating activities and water. Our contributions include training, technical assistance, coaching and supervision and providing matching funds for community-based services and activities.

HEALTH CARE

This past year saw the opening of a maternity ward with new furnishings and equipment and staffed with trained personnel in a separate structure adjacent to our eight-room, single-story Community Health Center. The only one of its kind in the area, the Center offers a full range of basic primary and reproductive health services, community medicine, and laboratory services. Patient visits have risen steadily and now average more than 30 per day. Outreach workers regularly visit clients at home to follow-up on Center treatment and provide counseling and health education. Births at the Center also are steadily increasing as staff in the new facility attract women away from less expensive traditional birth attendants.

NEF's methodology calls for communities to organize themselves to help themselves. An active Community Health Committee, composed of local volunteers, works with the Center's staff to plan and carry out health activities and serves as a liaison with local residents. The staff also visit homes to encourage people to seek medical care at the Center and hold regular sessions, free of charge, to train expectant and new mothers in pre- and post-natal care, to assess child growth and provide vaccinations and counsel on reproduction and sexually-transmitted diseases. NEF has been hard at work this year to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Center and its activities. This will be accomplished in part through the construction of 10 shops on the perimeter of Center property, with rental income supporting Center operations. The Popular Council and Health Committee have undertaken to obtain approvals for government health insurance coverage for residents and for the use of Zakat funds (traditional Islamic tithing) to cover those unable to pay premiums.

EDUCATION

A majority of adults in Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa are illiterate. They come from rural areas where education is of little perceived value to livelihoods of agriculture and animal husbandry. Women in particular lack education. Living now in a quasi-urban setting and working primarily in and near Khartoum, many residents now wish to learn to read and write in order to better their own condition, as well as help their families and children. They also prefer to leave their children in school rather than at home, where they are unattended or watched over by slightly older children.

Existing educational facilities are few in number, inadequate and more often than not, unavailable to the majority of children. Government schools typically are too expensive and have enrollment requirements that discourage or exclude most children.

We have worked intensively with leaders in Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa to improve educational opportunities and services. During this past year, new classrooms were added to the community-owned Al-Tagwa elementary school. Crumbling walls were replaced, flooring added, and the roof completed and strengthened. Existing furnishings were supplemented, and NEF is working to replace them with more durable age-appropriate ones. Latrines are planned. An extension to the land is being considered to allow further expansion and space for a playground. Significantly, a new Parent-Teacher Association was formed and officially registered, and NEF is now channeling support for Al-Tagwa through this PTA.

The pre-school with 30 children of Al-Tagwa was separated from the primary school and reconstituted as the Al-Tawheid community school, where NEF also provided a new classroom along with funding for mud brick walls and foundations for two additional classrooms, and a temporary awning to protect students from the sun. We also expanded an existing women's literacy program at the Awatif School.

Recently, the locally-elected Popular Council held a public meeting about the future of education in Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa and invited residents, school officials, and officials from the Sudan Ministry of Education. A list of needs and priorities resulted, which are being considered as a base for future actions.

REVIVED CREDIT FUND

In 2003, NEF established a community-based lending program in Dar Al-Salaam Al Rabwa to fund small and micro-enterprises. The program provides training for residents, initial capital, and follow-up and support services for the fund. A volunteer committee was selected for oversight. In the first two years, dozens of loans went to residents for food processing, animal husbandry, trading and sales, repairs and maintenance, communication and transportation services. While repayments were good, there were delays and a few defaults.

Recently, however, residents made good on these few outstanding loans and NEF has been working with committee members to review lending and plan for a larger, second round of funding scheduled to begin in late 2007. Additional training will be provided to committee members. Numbers of loans and loan size are expected to increase significantly and the plan is to involve local lending institutions in capital expansion.

WATER

The most serious problem in Dar Al-Salaam Al-Rabwa is access to clean water for drinking and other household use. At present, only one of four existing wells is functioning and the four working together are in fact insufficient for this expanding community. Residents carry water from the pumping stations or pay for water delivery by donkey carts loaded with reused barrels. There are problems of cleanliness at source, in transit, and in storage.

NEF has worked with Dar Al-Salaam to strengthen the water committees established to manage and control access and maintain water systems. Plans have now been developed for a more comprehensive system based on fully functioning wells connected to household distribution centers. The new system will incorporate a number of lessons learned from our previous work with the water committees.

We also are investigating connecting with existing nearby irrigation systems to allow some water for small-scale gardens and the raising of animals. This would provide an important new source of income for residents as well as improve overall nutrition. Residents recently completed registration of a local association that could collaborate with NEF on these and other future projects.