When the world hears about Sudan, it is most often about the violence in Darfur.

But the problems in Sudan - like so many of the countries we work in - are much more widespread. Most of Sudan’s nearly 40 million people have never known a time when their country was at peace.

From the time Sudan gained its independence from Britain in 1956 through 2005, the country was almost continuously embroiled in one of Africa’s longest running civil wars.

Throughout Sudan, women are in desperate need. Women suffered horrible abuses during the decades-long wars, having been targeted for violence by armies on all sides. Two million women have been raped, four million uprooted and hundreds of thousands live in refugee camps.

 

In Southern Sudan, where Women for Women works, survivors tell stories of militias storming villages in the dead of night, setting homes on fire and shooting family and friends. Rebels commonly gang-rape women, kidnap boys to become soldiers and take girls as sex slaves. Today, a lucky few Sudanese women are able to return home, but the obstacles they face are daunting. Most are lliterate, emotionally wounded and physically exhausted.

The women who enroll in our Sudan program have next to nothing. Now they have hope.

In Sudan, a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than complete primary school. And yet, education in Sudan is desperately needed to break the cycle of poverty.

• 86% have no formal education
• 96.5% cannot read or write than their name
• 99% have no electricity
• 98.5% have no access to running water
• 93% have lost at least one family member
• 68% of married women live in a polygamous marriage

Yet, with the help of Women for Women International, they are building a new life for themselves and their children.

They’ve been raped and tortured and made to feel worthless... Our goal is to help women take control of their destiny. In war, armies use rape and torture to make women feel worthless, unclean and powerless. As a result, many women survivors feel that they have been stripped of their rights. Others never really believed they had any rights to begin with.

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Women for Women International’s mission is to provide women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools they need to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. Leadership training helps women embrace the fact that they do have rights, they can find their voice and they can protect themselves and their children from those who would do them harm. It also gives them the courage and information they need to vote for the first time and make their voices heard in the political arena.

Literacy is the key to their future Once a woman learns to read, write and do simple addition in our program, she can take the next step to run her own business, join a woman’s cooperative and pass her literacy skills on to her children.

A woman's value in Sudan is based on the number of cows paid for her dowry. To divorce, a woman must pay back those cows - a nearly impossible task.

 

 

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