Interested in learning more about our work? Visit Women’s Education Partnership

All photographs of WEP’s literacy work in this blog are copyright Imogen Thurbon and may not be reproduced without written permission 

I have been a volunteer for Women’s Education Partnership since 2013 and over the past seven years I have had the privilege of seeing firsthand the work of Women’s Education Partnership  in bringing Arabic literacy to the communities of the internally displaced and disadvantaged of Khartoum.  This blog is dedicated to the Sudanese women I have met there and is an attempt to do justice to the remarkable life stories they tell.  It also seeks to highlight the work of two pioneers in women’s literacy in Sudan – Mrs Adila Abdel Rahman, our literacy projects coordinator, and Dr Leila Bashir, expert in the REFLECT literacy approach.

I explore the challenges and achievements of REFLECT literacy programs as I understand them and see this blog as a way to share with and learn from others in the field as our work develops and grows. See Literacy Circles in Action and Community Literacy and REFLECT to learn more.

…….In a small outhouse attached to a communal mosque on the very edge of Khartoum’s sprawling metropolis a women’s literacy circle meets twice a week. A bare rectangle of mud and corrugated iron traced on baked earth, the outhouse lies among the ramshackle settlements of mud brick homes that huddle low under a late afternoon sky blanched white with heat.  Its existence defies all the odds and yet is typical of all the literacy circles I have seen…..  

Read more in Literacy Circles in Action

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Mrs Adila Abdel Rahman, Literacy Expert and our Projects Coordinator

It is said that those who have drunk the waters of the Nile are destined to return and that is certainly true for me. Since my time as a volunteer secondary school teacher in Northern Province in the early 80’s,  Sudan has called me back time and time again and my love and fascination for its peoples has only grown over the years. I owe the Sudanese an immense debt of gratitude for their kindness, tolerance and generosity.

I hope some of that love and fascination comes across in this blog and might inspire others to visit Sudan and get involved in the transformative power of community literacy work.

Read more about the work of Women’s Education Partnership in literacy in Sudan and South Sudan here:  Women’s Education Partnership

Dr Leila Bashir, leading expert in REFLECT community literacy and Mrs Adila Abdel Rahman, literacy expert and WEP Literacy Programs Coordinator

Read more here: 100 Women changing the world

Learn more about the history, politics, culture and ethnicities of Sudan and South Sudan at the Society for Study of The Sudans UK  here: SSSUK

Learn more about Sudanese Arabic and folk culture Muna Zaki

Celebrating the Beauty and Diversity of Sudan and its Peoples

6-minute UNDP video with English subtitles

 Literacy Circles in Action   Posts          

Community Literacy and REFLECT   The Power of Folktales

Upcoming Events  Literacy and Development Links

Khartoum scenes  Imogen Thurbon

Visit my other blog here: http://chinchonpictures.blog/