At A Glance – Women’s Literacy; Our Scale and Reach
This is a literacy post for Women’s Education Partnership
The Women’s Education Partnership is passionate about ensuring their work makes a demonstrable difference targeting hundreds of participants across the most disadvantaged and most in-need sections of the community, and that their participants show sustained engagement, through low drop-out rates and high success in examinations.
The data below, reflecting a five-year context, were collected by our staff in Khartoum under difficult circumstances. We are in the process of refining the data through detailed and rigorous surveying of our participants and in-depth analysis of our impact which we hope to report on next year.
We provide practical, development through literacy training for approximately 400 women and girls every year in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
See more on our work in Community Literacy and About
Sudan faces particularly high literacy challenges across its poorest areas of Khartoum, where communities have grown out of former IDP and related precarious settlements.
100% of our literacy circles are based in these communities .
80% of our participants come from Darfur or the Nuba Mountains, many having fled conflict, personal tragedy or severe hardship in their homelands.
Where our participants come from: intake data of the past five years
Our participants are among the world’s most disadvantaged when measured against international Individual Deprivation Index parameters. These include access to sufficient and safe nutrition, cooking and heating fuel, access to sufficient clean water, robust and sanitary shelter with basic toilet facilities; access to primary health care and basic education; time poverty, employment opportunities and environmental risk factors such as poor water drainage, exposure to rubbish, and other pollutants.
See how our literacy program makes a difference in Literacy Changes Lives
Please consider giving to our life-changing work. Just click on the link below to donate quickly and securely:
90% of our participants have no running water at home 
Many of the women and girls attending our literacy circles bear the financial burden of providing for their families in the most challenging of circumstances. They eke out a living selling small items in the local market, or work as cleaners. Our literacy program trains participants in alternative income generating activities such as skilled handicrafts production, soap and biscuit making, as well as training in food processing in collaboration with local businesses.
See Weaving Brighter Futures for more
Half our participants are the sole breadwinner in their families and almost a third are joint breadwinners.
The vast majority of our participants never had the opportunity to attend school as children and in later life have sustained family responsibilities which have made it impossible for them to pursue full time education.
See Scenes from the Circles, Windows and The River of Life
The educational profile of our participants
90% of our participants sit and pass the compulsory state literacy examinations on completing our 2-year literacy program. But they also come away with essential practical knowledge and skills enabling them to improve their personal circumstances, live healthier and safer lives, educate their children, generate income and initiate community change.
Proportion of our participants graduating after taking state literacy examinations.
Learn more about our program in Community Literacy and REFLECT and Literacy Circles in Action
We are working to provide detailed follow-up and support for our graduates in order to offer them more opportunities to extend their knowledge and skills and to enable us to measure levels of empowerment among our graduates. We recognize that it is vital graduates have outlets for their newfound knowledge and skills. Some graduates are keen to go on to take their secondary school certificate and we are working towards enabling them to do so.
Learn more in Voices
Level of interest in post- literacy graduation opportunities and dropout rate among our participants over the past five years. We are working to reduce dropout rates among our participants, who often have to juggle attending literacy circles with pressing economic and family demands.
Our eye care program identifies participants in need of eye disease diagnosis and treatment and we are committed to reaching more older participants who are disproportionately disadvantaged by illiteracy.
Below, our present reach in eye care
Learn more about our older learners in Grandmother’s School
Learn more about our eye care work in Women’s Education Partnership Eye Care and the remarkable work of Dr. Nabilla, our eye surgeon.
Dr.Nabilla, Eye Care Ambassador
Our literacy program empowers women and girls to analyze critically aspects of their lives which may be limiting their autonomy and potential and that of their daughters, while always respecting Sudanese cultures and values.
Learn more in Training the Trainer
The proportion of our participants subjected to early marriage. There is a clear correlation between early marriage and intergenerational illiteracy among girls.
See Child Marriage for more
This is a literacy post forWomen’s Education Partnership
Read more in our website – Women’s Education Partnership LiteracyLocal Voices
Please consider giving to our life-changing work. Just click on the link below to donate quickly and securely:
Women's literacy in Sudan 
That’s so kind of you to comment, Abdul. The Sudanese bear their their challenges with such dignity. The prayer cap seller lost her son when he was killed trying to emigrate to Europe.
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