Today, I had the opportunity to sit in on a briefing with Fatima Ahmed, president of Zenab for Women in Development, a MADRE partner and community-based women’s organization in Sudan. She had just returned from spending a few months in Sudan, and she stopped by to fill us in on the latest developments.
Fatima came by the MADRE office to update us on the success of current projects she overlooks and organizes with the help of MADRE. She spoke about the success of the Women Farmers Unite, a union of women she helped to organize beginning in 2007. With Fatima’s leadership and the support of MADRE, women farmers, who make up the majority of farmers working on small-scale farms in Sudan, have been able to demand access to seeds, better tools, and assistance in farming. It has been a very successful initiative to date, and Fatima wants to do all she can to expand this union to other villages across Sudan.
This union, Fatima tells us, is important to allow women farmers to share knowledge on how to better prepare their land for cultivation and how to manage weeds that destroy the crops. She was happy to share that these women have not only been successful in providing food for their own families but have also been able to provide crops for other regions in Sudan.
From her travel across the country, Fatima told us a story about one village where the women had been denied access to education. With her help, they organized an education program for adults. The women, also with the help of the village, built a center where they could host their school as well as town meetings. The women are now more educated and have improved their farming as well. Their improved farming has increased production and has enabled them to generate an income, in some areas even allowing them the chance to bring in electricity.
Unfortunately, the news is not all good; currently, in northern parts of the state many areas are being affected by the drought. This could affect the coming harvest very negatively. Fatima told us she has been calling Sudan everyday to ask if the rain has come, but so far has heard no good news. We can see she is very worried, because if it does not rain soon the harvest will not be successful. “If it doesn’t rain by October 15,” she says. “There is no hope.”
*Photo credit: Zenab for Women in Development. Members of the women farmers union receive seed supplies from Zenab for Women in Development.
Comments