Women’s Education Partnership

Women’s Education Partnership (WEP)

Update on Our Work in Sudan and South Sudan by Chair of Trustees, Dr. Abdul Suliman and former Chair Simon Boyd

Speaking at the Annual Symposium of The Society for the Study of the Sudans UK (SSSUK)

5th October, 2024

Above, Dr. Abdul Suliman, Chair of trustees, Women’s Education Partnership

The Education Crisis in Sudan in Numbers

17,000 000 school-age children are out of school. 1,400 000 children of school age are internally displaced.10,400 schools out of a total 19,300 schools in Sudan are closed. Sudan suffers from a 76% funding gap in the education sector. Source: Amidst Displacement, Chaos and Upheaval, ATAR Magazine; Wafa A. M. Ali

Dr. Abdul Suliman’s Update on the Work of Women’s Education Partnership (WEP)

Background to WEP

Our Record South Sudan – a Success

Sudan’s Present Situation (2023 onwards) Current Approaches

Challenges The Future

Background to Women’s Education Partnership (WEP)

Women’s Education Partnership was founded in 1999 under the name of Together for Sudan. Our mission is to support disadvantaged women and girls in Sudan and South Sudan through education. Since 2011 we have developed separate education and health programmes operating in Sudan and South Sudan. We have an annual budget of roughly 100,000 pounds sterlings and our operations are at present directed by a 6-member board of trustees, treasurer, supported by volunteers.

Learn more in Women’s Education Partnership.

Above, a scene from our literacy and primary health anti-malaria training, pre-war.

See too The Work War Has Halted

Our Record

Over the past twenty years we have sponsored more than 400 scholars at five universities in Sudan; Ahfad, Bahri, El-Nilein, and Sudan University of Science and Technology. We have been providing women’s literacy training – including health, nutrition, childcare and community leadership skills – for close on two decades, offering places to 300 women and girls annually before the war. Pre-war we supported 100 elementary school pupils annually in deprived areas of the capital. Until recently we provided free eye care and eye surgery to our beneficiaries. In South Sudan we offer adult literacy and community health training through our partner KIMU. Learn more about our programmes there in Health and Literacy in South Sudan; Outposts of Hope

South Sudan – A Success

South Sudan Above, scenes from our South Sudan education programmes.

Although our work in Sudan has been severely disrupted since the outbreak of war last April, Women’s Education Partnership has successfully expanded its work in South Sudan. Through our trustee and expert in South Sudan, Sue Clayton, WEP is presently sponsoring 26 young women in nine higher education institutions in South Sudan. We fund tuition and supply laptops and other equipment needed. We support our scholars for the duration of the course to ensure that they have the stability they need to flourish in their studies. They are studying across a broad-spectrum of disciplines including clinical medicine and midwifery; public administration; business management; nutrition and dietetics. See more in Hope Through Action.

Dr. Suliman outlines more highlights below:

Sudan’s Present Situation

The ongoing war has generated a humanitarian disaster with direct casualties estimated at at least 200,000. Sudan has witnessed massive internal refugee displacement and faces imminent famine in many regions. Civilians have been subject to physical and sexual violence. The war has had a catastrophic effect on the economy and infrastructure. As a result, education has largely ceased although some universities and community-led schools have re-opened or are attempting to re-open in limited safe areas. Our staff have very sadly been made redundant. Funding for supporting education is highly compromised and “fraud” blocks on bank accounts have made transferring funds increasingly restrictive. We face a similar situation in supporting Sudanese refugees in Cairo.

Current Approaches

We are seeking to support a Sudanese refugee school of around 100 pupils in Cairo. Below, end-of-year certificate award celebrations for Sudanese refugee children we support, October last year in Cairo. Our support is a lifeline for these young people who are unable to join mainstream Egyptian schooling. Tuition fees for Sudanese children studying in Egypt range from $1000 to $2000 annually (source; ATAR).

Last year, our Chair of Trustees, Dr. Abdul Suliman visited Sudanese refugee centres in Cairo. He was shocked by the suffering of many Sudanese he met there and saw firsthand the urgent need for educational support.

He speaks compellingly of the plight of Sudanese in Cairo seeking schooling here (one minute):

We are offering British Council online English Language courses to our dispersed Sudanese university scholars and exploring ways we might be able to offer adult literacy training in both Sudan and Egypt. See more details in Hope Through Action

Trustee Dr Anna Snowdon and her Sudanese colleagues have been monitoring the situation of our sponsored undergraduates since the outbreak of the war and are in regular WhatsApp contact with many of them. Eleven students have registered to continue their courses online under an initiative recently launched by the Universities of Khartoum and Bahri. Dr Snowdon has also been in regular contact with Ahfad University and is following developments in offering online courses for their dispersed undergraduates, including many of our sponsored students.

Above, Emmanuela, from South Sudan. Emmanuela was pursuing her undergraduate program at Ahfad University when the outbreak of war forced her to escape to her homeland. She is now able to resume her studies In Public Health at Upper Nile University in Juba. Emmanuela is one of several sponsored undergraduates we continue to support.

Challenges and The Future

We are now operating at a distance. The military coup of October 2021, the Covid pandemic of 2020-22 both led to severe interruption in the education sector, with lengthy school and university closures. Inflation in Sudan is up to 700% and our staff costs pre-war had risen over 25%.

While we hope to return to educating women and girls in Sudan as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so, we are actively looking to extend and strengthen our current support of young Sudanese refugees in Cairo through their primary school years. We are also working to develop our growing presence in South Sudan and extend the very successful programmes we have there.

As always, we are profoundly grateful to all our supporters, friends and followers of our work at this tragic time for Sudan.