Sudan/People and Projects

2011: Islamic Relief's work in Sudan

(29 May 2012)

Borehole in Mawad village, Kordofan

In 2011, 228,532 direct and indirect beneficiaries have benefited from Islamic Relief Sudan’s (IRS) Programmes. The beneficiaries include returnees and IDPs who have been displaced by the civil war and whose means to livelihoods and access to basic services were drastically disrupted. The implemented projects encompass food security and livelihoods improvement, provision and improvement of basic social services including education, water and sanitation, and health, seasonal projects (Ramadan & Qurbani), orphans sponsorship, child welfare support, as well as capacity building. Some of the highlights of the year include:

Food Security
Despite the operational challenges such as short term nature of funding, insecurity and related access restrictions, Islamic Relief Sudan continued to serve the vulnerable communities in West Darfur, North Kordofan and Blue Nile. Access to basic services has been sustained and expanded for thousands of children, women and elderly. In the food security sector, progress has been made in improving the living conditions of the vulnerable people in targeted areas through supporting farmers, fishermen, women’s group, youth and livestock owners and increase their knowledge and improve productivity.

•   800 farm households received seeds and farm tools
•   60 agricultural extension agents trained
•   300 goats distributed to female headed households
•   36 women trained on food processing techniques
•   12 women trained on income generation skills
•   50 beekeepers trained on honey making and equipped
•   20 fishermen trained and provided with equipments
•   More than 30,500 animals been vaccinated

Education
School hygiene clubs were formed and trained on environmental conservation in community gardens. Students showed a sense of responsibility and managed to conduct different cleaning campaigns and disseminate basic school sanitation awareness in their respective schools. School nurseries were established at schools to preserve the environment. School compounds have become cleaner and healthier than ever before.
•   35,783 students benefitted
•   33 classrooms constructed
•   13 teachers offices constructed
•   350 desks/seats to improve learning environment for the children provided
•   252 PTA (Parent Teacher Association) members were trained
•   76 primary school teachers were trained on subjects and teaching methodologies

WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)
Islamic Relief Sudan is committed to capacity building. During the year, communities were directly involved in the implementation of project activities through the formation of committees. For example, WASH committees were trained on repair and maintenance of hand pumps. They set up a user-fee system, monitored quality of water and mobilized the community for hygiene and sanitation campaigns. As a result, they have managed to repair all the broken hand pumps and carried out cleaning effective campaigns. These committees are run by women.
New approaches to enhancing community participation were introduced: in repair and maintenance of wells, hygiene and sanitation and building capacity of projects once external support ceases. One of these projects was CHAST- Children Hygiene and Sanitation Training – which is a child-focused approach. This engages children in hygiene at the home, school and community level.

Another project is called PHAST: Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Training. The community is educated on best practice in hygiene and sanitation. In addition, the community conducts a dialogue amongst itself on the existing attitudes and practices of their area and agrees on action plans to improve the situation. Islamic Relief is the only organization in Sudan which is carrying out the CHAST and PHAST projects. Successes of these WASH projects include:

•   33 boreholes fitted with hand pumps
•   50 hand pumps rehabilitated providing access to clean water to over 41,500 people
•   46 water user committees established
•   33 hand pump mechanics trained
•   80 hygiene promoters trained
•   335 awareness raising sessions
•   1300 household latrines and 7 school latrines constructed
•   75% of IDPs have access to 18 litres of clean drinking water per person per day
•   A significant reduction in the number of families sharing one latrine

Building Capacity
Islamic Relief work is interlinked with the recovery and development plans of the government ministries at the provincial level. Islamic Relief and line ministries undertake joint needs assessment, identify critical gaps and propose a course of action. Technical staff seconded from the line ministries work with Islamic Relief during the implementation of projects. The capacity of government staff is developed through this approach. After project funding ceases, the ministries take over responsibility of the services.