Women’s Literacy Sudan

Blog for Women’s Education Partnership; Our Literacy Programme, Khartoum  

Women’s Education Partnership 

Why This Blog?   Why Literacy Matters  The Cultural Context 

Some Background 

What if you suddenly couldn’t read or write?  How would you cope?

Click on the blogpost above to understand the daily challenges facing those living with illiteracy and how women’s community literacy can change lives in Sudan.

 Key data for our literacy work, pre-war, are in At a Glance and Facts and Figures 

Why this Blog? Why Literacy Matters The Cultural Context 

Why this Blog?

Read more in Literacy Circles in Action

Women’sLiteracySudan opens a window onto the remarkable lives of the women attending the community literacy circles of Women’s Education Partnership in Khartoum and hopes to share with and learn from others in the fields of women’s community literacy and empowerment. Although our work in Sudan has been suspended since the outbreak of war last year, we are actively pursuing ways to support our beneficiaries and re-establish our literacy, university scholarship and orphans’ schooling programmes as soon as we can.

Women’s education post-war will play an essential role in the rebuilding of Sudanese society. For more on the impact of the present conflict on women’s education, see:

Messages from Khartoum and London 

The Education of a Generation at Stake

The Education Crisis in Sudan

The Work War Has Halted

The Pages and Posts in this blog chart the pioneering community-building work of WEP’s Arabic literacy workers delivering REFLECT joint literacy and development programs to disadvantaged communities in Sudan. REFLECT is a community-driven approach to education and development where the wealth of knowledge and experience of local people are recognized as key to bringing about successful longterm change.

Learn more about Community Literacy and REFLECT and see our Literacy Circles in Action

Above, our Country Director, Mrs Neimat Issha, admiring traditional food covers made by participants using recycled plastic, as part of our numeracy and income generation skills

See Weaving Brighter Futures for more on our handicraft training 

Above, discussing annual household income and expenditure in our literacy sessions

Why this Blog? Why Literacy Matters The Cultural Context 

Why Literacy Matters

The UN recognizes the urgent need for worldwide action on adult literacy and acknowledges that women throughout the world are disproportionally disadvantaged by illiteracy. REFLECT literacy and development programs are recognized by the UN as effective and sustainable.

You can read about the life-changing impact of literacy programs on gender equality, health, mobility and livelihood here: Writing the Wrongs Our work dovetails with that of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Above, Dr Leila Bashir, expert in REFLECT community literacy, explaining how human rights awareness is an integral part of community literacy work.

Some Scenes from our Literacy Circles 

Please consider giving to our life-changing work. Just click on the link below to donate quickly and securely:

Women’s Education Partnership Donate

Below, one of our proud literacy graduates with her certificate.

Why this Blog? Why Literacy Matters The Cultural Context 

The Cultural Context 

As well as discussing the challenges and achievements of our women’s Arabic literacy work in my posts, I explore aspects of Sudanese cultural life which reflect the beauty and diversity of this fascinating country. 

For a taste of our cultural posts, see Selected Cultural Posts 2023-4

Selected Cultural Posts 2022    Selected Cultural Posts 2021   A Taste of a Sudanese Summer 2022   

See the remarkable work of Amel Bashir Taha in –

Amel Bashir Taha Delicate Defiance

My latest cultural posts on Sudanese Incense Incense (بخور bakhūr) in Sudan and Perfume, Karkar, Dilka and Dukhan 

The Clove’s Fragrance

See some of my other cultural posts here: Al-Hawdaj “A Necklace of Shells from Distant Seas…”,  Uncle Abdur-Raheem,  Scenes from Sudan’s Northern Province,1980s, See too: Hair Braiding in Northern Sudan Anointing in Robes of Red and Gold and Kambala

If you are interested in improving your Sudanese Arabic, you might find my monthly Sudanese Arabic language learning blog useful: 

Sudanese Arabic Documentary Transcriptions

Sudan is a beautiful country and its peoples among the most generous and hospitable in the world.

All Photographs in this blog are copyright Imogen Thurbon and may not be reproduced without written permission.

Interested in supporting our work? Click below to learn more about us:

Women’s Education Partnership

As this blog aims to promote understanding of and dialogue around Sudanese women’s educational, cultural and community life, no comments of a political or culturally divisive nature will be published.  

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