SSD 18 - GIDEL WOMEN'S PROMOTION
Project Location
The Gidel Women Centre is the only place for women development in the Nuba Mountains. It accommodates women with little or no basic education. At present, the Gidel Women Centre has 88 members divided into four groups dealing with adult education and tailoring training, and other groups in various outdoor stations.
The women of the Nuba Mountains are facing many challenges such as illiteracy, poverty and marginalisation. They are voiceless, disenfranchised and overburdened with responsibilities. They are the main breadwinners of their families because most of their husbands are soldiers posted away from home while some women are widows or divorced and therefore vulnerable. The main economic activities of the Nuba people are agriculture and cattle breeding.
Women cultivate small gardens with traditional tools, and the small harvest is not enough, families suffer from hunger and children are malnourished. To help the women overcome these challenges, the Women Centre: runs adult education and tailoring courses, procures seeds and tools for agriculture, organises hygiene workshops and income-generating activities, and supports school children by paying school fees for girls in particular.
Project description
The 'Women Centre' welcomes women with low or no basic education from different parts of the Gidel parish. The Gidel Women Centre currently has 88 members divided into 4 groups. The Women's Centre provides adult education, tailoring skills training and arts and crafts so that they can start their own income-generating activities. We also support other groups at various stations.
This year, the Centre plans to organise:
- Workshops on hygiene, women's rights and gender-based violence
- Micro-credit programme to help 10 women start their own small businesses
- English and Arabic lessons and tailoring and arts and crafts courses
By enabling women to improve their lives in this way, they are able to support their families and actively participate in society.
Objectives
- To give 88 women in Gidel the opportunity to attend adult education classes for one year, enabling them in basic writing, reading and arithmetic.
- To support through micro-credit a women's self-help group to start a small business.
- To empower women with knowledge, tailoring and crafting skills so that they can start their own small businesses and contribute to their families' needs.
Beneficiaries
Direct: 88 women
Indirect: 250 people (their children and relatives)
Referent Sister for the project: Sr. Rosa Escobar
Project's costs