Darfur Women Network, Inc.

About The Program:
The Soapmaking Program focuses on providing 10 groups of refugee women with training, ingredients and tools to produce body and laundry soap to sell to over 29,000 refugees from Darfur for an affordable price.The Soapmaking Program teaches women about hygiene education and provides an income generating opportunity that encourages financial stability thus empowering women. In addition to personal empowerment, this program impacts the community in a vastly positive way. It helps reduce illness, improve overall health and well-being of the refugees in the camp. Working together through this program encourages team building and community.

The Need:
Many refugees displaced by the Darfur Conflict do not have regular access to personal hygiene items. The United Nations ceased the distribution of soap and many refugees are unaware of hygiene education. This lack of basic necessity results in ongoing disease, unsanitary conditions, overall poor health and malnutrition among the children in the camp. In addition to unsanitary conditions, many refugee women have no source of income; meaning they cannot provide for themselves or their families effectively.

What We Need To Make This Happen?
By supporting this project, you will help us provide the training, ingredients and tools needed to help groups of women within the refugee camp to produce body and laundry soap to be used as an income generating opportunity. By producing soap within the camp, we can help decrease the risk of diseases, provide and highlight the importance of personal hygiene. This program is sustainable and locally run by refugees in the camp.

About This Program:
Darfur refugees were farmers before they fled Sudan in 2003. Now living in refugee camps in Chad, they are dependent on the World Food Program for food. Unfortunately, rations are low so the allotted provisions do not cover the need. As a result, refugees requested urgent assistance from the Darfur Women Network in establishing small-scale farming and home gardening projects to produce their own food. The project will provide 1000 refugee families with rented land, seed and equipment they need to produce flourishing communities, agricultural security and personal empowerment.

The Need:
More than 262,000 refugees crossed the border to Chad in escape from the violence and instability in Darfur. They were native farmers in their home of Sudan, but do not have the resources they need to reestablish agriculture. Refugees face malnutrition regularly as the World Food Program experiences food ration delays. In addition, the rations themselves have been reduced leading to many families without access to food or with access to food that is unsafe to eat. Starvation, illness and disease have become epidemic throughout the camps.

What We Can Do To Make This Happen:
The Food Security and Agriculture Project will provide vulnerable groups, including women, people with disabilities, the elderly and widows with financial assistance, land, seed and equipment to produce their own food. The farmers will to be trained in agricultural working groups, taught marketing skills, record keeping of food production, financial accountability and evaluation of agricultural success. The Darfur refugees are a vibrant community with an understanding of the land and a love for farming. They simply need the tools and some guidance on how to become self sufficient again after the tragic experiences they have and still face. We know that with your support, we can assist these incredibly brave individuals to rebuild their farms and reestablish successful farming communities once again claiming food security and agricultural independence.

About The Program:
The College Preparation Project provides disadvantaged students from African immigrant and low-income families with SAT tutoring and practice tests that would otherwise be unaffordable. Better preparation leads to higher SAT scoring which better secures their access to desired colleges and future career opportunities.

The Need:
For those who have immigrated to the US from Africa, there are different challenges that young people face in preparation for college testing. The SAT test score is a key factor for most students applying to colleges. SAT tutoring and practice tests are essential for higher SAT scoring, but are expensive. Students from these low-income homes or immigrant families typically have the disadvantages of inadequate education and suffer language barriers that hinder learning and comprehension. Most have minimal or no access to SAT tutoring and college preparation due to the high cost of these specialized classes. Without these preparatory testing classes, it is unlikely they will have the same opportunity for higher education options.

How We Can Make This Happen:
A solid SAT score is vital to college entry. For most, a college degree is necessary to even be considered for a job. We provide students from immigrant family’s equal opportunity to SAT tutoring and practice test classes. Specialized classes help students develop a deeper understanding of problem-solving, critical thinking, reading, vocabulary, writing structure and time management. By supporting this program, donating your time or volunteering as a tutor, you can help us give these students the opportunity for the bright future they deserve.

The Challenge:
Fitness and nutrition is very important for all ages in African immigrant communities; particularly for women and girls. However, lack of education regarding nutrition and healthy cooking, better eating habits and a more active lifestyle leads to unhealthy lifestyles in immigrants. Fitness has not been traditionally recognized as it has not been a part of their regular routine, education or background in Africa. Most of the immigrants come from many countries that have no gyms, fitness classes or running tracks.

In the US, food awareness, healthy eating and fitness are commonly promoted by the AMA to reduce obesity, risk of disease and encourage overall healthier lifestyle. However, immigrant women and girls still face challenges that hinder them from participating in healthier lifestyle options.

These challenges include:
* Culture and religion that prohibits females from fitness centers or classes where there is a male presence.
* Lack of financial means to join a gym or specialized fitness classes.
* Lack of financial means to pay for daycare services.
* Lack of financial means for or access to fresh, organic food, joining nutrition education and healthy cooking classes.

What We Need To Make This Happen:
The Fitness and Nutrition Program focuses on education as the most effective tool to advance knowledge, raise awareness and enhance techniques about health and fitness as well as tips about smart shopping to reduce the food cost that challenges many low-income families. This program provides lectures about nutritious food and training for immigrant mothers in the form of cooking classes that demonstrate how to prepare everyday balanced meals and nutritious snacks. With the help of donors and volunteers like you we can provide these women with a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their families.

The Need:
Safety is the utmost concert of Darfur Women Network. Communication is key in the refugee camps, villages and those who are en route for firewood in Chad and surrounding villages. Since many areas are still high conflict zones and firewood treks for women and girls last from sunrise to sunset, having access to danger alerts is imperative. Providing villages and camps with walkie talkies or cell phones enables Safety Groups, guards or individuals to communicate attack alerts, the arrival of new supplies or medical aid, information regarding food, water or medical shortages or emergencies. Cell phones and walkie talkies also provide villages and camps with a means to communicate event gatherings and vital community information. Some areas do not have cell phone coverage, so walkie talkies are the only means of communication. Areas with cell phone coverage can benefit from the use of smart phones so that educational information, text and media files, field data gathering and monitoring can be documented and relayed to and from the field staff as well as staff in the US.

How The Program Works:
Used Cell Phones & Smartphones:

There are 12 total camps in Chad. Each camp consists of roughly 13,000 and 29,000 refugees per camp. Our goal is to provide at least 5 basic cell phones per camp for communication and safety information and at least 3 smart phones per camp for educational resources for adult and youth programs. The individuals in these camps have been isolated from accessing educational and informational outlets. They have been completely disconnected with the outside world. We at Darfur Women Network believe that providing them with the tools to learn, communicate and connect is important to educational and social development both individually and in rebuilding their communities. Because we are committed to progress in the camps and villages, it is imperative that our field staff have the tools to collect data, monitor and communicate regularly on the status of each program.

Walkie Talkies:

Additionally, surrounding villages outside the camps do not have cell phone coverage, our goal is to provide each of the 35 villages with a walkie-talkie, so that they may communicate both with the smaller villages and the camps. Walkie-talkies have a range of 25-30 miles which would be very useful for those who are on foot to communicate with those in the camps.

What We Need To Make This Happen:
In addition to the actual cell phones and walkie-talkies, other items are necessary in order for this to work. Since walkie-talkies operate differently from cell phones, solar chargers are necessary in order to keep them operational. Cell phones require SIM cards, cables and chargers.

There are many locations across the US that receive hundreds of used phones per day for recycling or trash. With the constant upgrade in technology, many people toss them out or even have older phones stored away in boxes that sit completely unused. Rather than drop them off for recycling or store them away, why not donate them to people that can truly use them. Don’t have a phone to donate, but want to help?

* Have a collection drive at your school, university, club, community center, group or religious organization.
Purchase a used walkie-talkie or used cell phone from discount retailers to donate.
* Contact cell phone providers or carriers about used phones on their way to the recycling facility.
* Ask local businesses in your community if they’d be willing to chip in or organize an event.

The Program:
The Ecological Restoration Program was designed to work in tandem with the 7,000 Safe Stoves for Darfur Refugee Mothers program. Darfur Women Network provides 3 trees to each family who receives a Safe Stove through our 7,000 Safe Stoves for Darfur Refugee Mothers program. Encouraging ecological restoration not only creates a thriving ecosystem, but also enhances agricultural stability and healthier livestock.

The Challenge:
The biggest ecological challenge in Chad and surrounding regions is desertification. What is desertification and what causes it? Desertification is a type of land degradation in which an already dry land region becomes even increasingly arid, typically losing bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. In addition to the extreme heat and high winds in the stifling desert of Chad, high firewood consumption has led to rapid deforestation in the area immediately in and surrounding the camp. The constant drain impacts the agriculture, scarcity of local building materials, shelter and pasture for livestock.

What We Can Do To Make This Happen:
Firewood is a primary resource in Darfur refugee camps for cooking, building and cleaning. Darfur Women Network developed a more efficient stove locally referred to as a ‘Mud Stove’ which requires less firewood and can be crafted within the camps by refugee women using local materials. By supporting our Safe Stoves program, you’re not only providing refugee mothers with income generating opportunities, safer and more efficient cooking options, but also helping the ecological restoration in Chad. Because, we believe a healthy ecosystem and that we hold the responsibility of caring for our beautiful planet, DWN has also launched additional campaigns to plant 1000 trees inside and around the camp to decrease ecological depletion.

About This Program:
The Micro-Enterprise Project, previously called The Women Empowerment Project, for refugee women living in the camps in Chad. Darfur Women Network creates opportunities for Darfuri women to generate their own income through handmade craft production such as making fuel efficient stoves and soap and providing them basic business education to ensure income generating success. This program is a bridge to DWN’s other income generating programs by teaching marketing, basic economics, financial accountability and team-building. Through this program Darfuri women learn the foundations of business education necessary to select and master their skill, and begin to provide for their families.

The Need:
Many families have been in the camps for as many as eight years. Income generating opportunities have been few and far between. Prior to this program the only means for refugee women in these camps to generate income had been collecting firewood which perpetuates desertification and increases safety risks. This project was created in response to heartbreaking stories of violence and poverty and the necessity to empower women. With thousands of families living in refugee camps, it is imperative to reestablish a sense of community and self sufficient income independence.

What Can We Do To Make This Happen:
Darfur Women Network believes that the implementation of The Micro-Enterprise Project in the refugee camps in Darfur and Chad is essential to create income for the families. This program helps provide financial stability for women that have been at the camps for years. By supporting this program or other programs such as SoapMaking Program or 7,000 Safe Stoves for Darfur Refugee Mothers, you too can help empower women to be the beacons of strength and success in their communities.