Above, one of the elementary schools we support together with our local partner, Babiker Badri Association.
The Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women’s Studies
Introducing our Literacy Programme Partner
In May this year I was privileged to meet education experts from our local partner in literacy and orphans’ schooling, The Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women’s Studies (BBSAWS). I was also lucky enough to accompany our literacy coordinator, Mrs Adila Osman, pictured below, together with members from the Association, on field trips to our sponsored elementary schools and literacy circles.
More on those field trips in
Field Visits with Women’s Education Partnership
Celebrating a New Literacy Circle
Above, the Association’s 2017 edition of its journal, Women, dedicated to women’s and girls’ education in Sudan. The Association and its Ahfad University partners have a respected record of academic research and fieldwork into the holistic impact of the education of girls and women on Sudanese society. See, for example, Reflections on the Struggle for Girls’ Education in Sudan
The work of the Babiker Badri Association also meshes closely with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The energy, expertise and no-nonsense approach of the Association members I met was truly inspiring, as was the careful, analytical approach they apply to all their educational projects. It’s an educational approach that very much echoes our own. Left, sketch of some of our literacy facilitators at a pre-course orientation session, held at Ahfad University and led by The Association’s president, Dr. Faiza Hussein, in May this year. The session explored practical ways to overcome educational challenges faced by both our literacy workers and our literacy circle members. The discussion was lively, engaged and business-like.
The Babiker Badri Scientific Association Pioneers Outstanding Woman 2021
Babiker Badri Association and FGM
Pioneers
The ideals that inform the Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women’s Studies flow from the groundbreaking work of Sudan’s anti-colonialist hero and pioneer in girls’ education, Babiker Badri, pictured right. “Formed as a fulfillment of a recommendation of the symposium of the Changing Status of Sudanese Women held in March 1979, by Ahfad University for Women to celebrate the Ahfad Diamond Jubilee, BBSAWS is a voluntary, non-political and non-profit making NGO dedicated to enhancing women’s status and for achieving equality, empowerment, development and the full realization of their human capacity.” It also enjoys affiliate status to several United Nations agencies.
Below, an excerpt from The History of Girls’ Education, Sisters Under The Sun, by Marjorie Hall and Bakhita Amin Ismail.
In 1907 Babiker Badri established Sudan’s first girls’ school in the teeth of colonial and traditionalist Sudanese opposition. Over the past forty years, Babiker Badri Association has researched, published and campaigned for the advancement of women in Sudanese society in numerous educational and cultural arenas. Below, Professor Balghis Badri, one of the Association’s founders, respected figure in women’s affairs, and award-winning campaigner.
Outstanding Arab Women 2021
Three Sudanese Women Win Outstanding Prizes
The Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women’s Studies and FGM
“Every girl is born Saleema. Let every girl grow up Saleema.”
The Association has, since its inception, been dedicated to the eradication of FGM in Sudan, a practice whose physical and psychological effects can be devastating – see I blocked the memory for years. BBC reports UN research indicating that 87% of Sudanese women aged between 14 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM. The Sudanese government-approved Saleema initiative has made a major contribution to changing attitudes towards the practice and uses fresh, creative and innovative communication strategies which have proved highly effective. See more in Young people take to the stage to end FGM
See too The Eradication of Female Circumcision in Sudan
Below, background to Babiker Badri’s Saleema campaign
(BBSAWS biannual journal, Women, Issue no.30, p 9.)
This is a literacy post for Women’s Education Partnership.
Learn more about our women’s literacy, orphans’ schooling and university scholarship programs in:
Field Visits with Women’s Education Partnership
Celebrating a New Literacy Circle
Scenes from Our Orphans’ Schooling Programme
Women's literacy in Sudan 