Women’s Education Partnership (WEP) is proud and honoured to announce that Leila Aboulela has agreed to become our newest patron. As many will know, Leila is a Sudanese writer living in Scotland. She was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and her work has been recognized for its distinctive exploration of migration and Islamic spirituality. She has published five novels, an award- winning collection of short stories, and several of her plays have been broadcast on the BBC. She is Honorary President of the SSSUK (The Society for the Study of the Sudans) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

WEP’s Chair of Trustees, Simon Boyd, said: “We are delighted to welcome Leila Aboulela as our new patron. She has a unique perspective, bringing together an understanding of how it feels to be at home both in the Sudan and in the UK, and gives us a subtle, engaging and moving view of life in the Sudan, especially the experience of women. We look forward to her helping to bring the message about WEP’s work and programmes to a wider audience in UK, Sudan and elsewhere.”

Leila Aboulela said, “It’s an honour to be named as WEP’s newest patron. The work they do not only empowers women but also benefits their children, extended families, and communities. Illiteracy is a disability and a prison; education is life enhancing and nurturing. I am excited to join this amazing charity and grateful for the opportunity to help women in Sudan.’’

For more information about Leila and her work, please visit:

www.leila-aboulela.com

Over the past month, our director, Neimat Issha, has been undertaking field visits to all the orphans’ elementary schools we support. These schools are community built and run and were desperately short of resources even before the floods struck. While some have mercifully escaped major damage, several have seen serious structural damage and one has lost its water supply.

Below are some photos from a 4th September visit to just one of the ten schools we support – Amna Bint Wahab Elementary School. As you can see, there has been extensive damage to classroom roofs, walls, latrines and offices, making much of the premises unsafe. Like many schools, it has lost many of its desks, benches and teaching resources.

We are preparing to undertake both emergency and longterm repair work to our worst affected schools like Amna Bint Wahab and we will update you on our progress as soon as we can. We aim, funding permitting, to make repairs that will ensure our schools are more resilient to extreme weather events in the future and guarantee stability for our orphans in their schooling as the impact of climate change on Sudan intensifies.

“559 schools have been damaged, 51 schools are hosting displaced persons seeking shelter and 102,000 school children have been affected in Khartoum State.” – our Country Director, Mrs Neimat Issha, quoting latest Education Ministry forum data.

Many schools not suffering major damage have been given over to emergency shelter for evacuees unable to return to their homes. Lack of clean water, flooded and broken latrines, collapsed roofs and structural damage have made schools unsafe. School textbooks, chairs, desks and other school supplies have been destroyed. In many areas, flooding has gravely disrupted electricity supplies and those lucky enough to have online access for home study have had no internet service for several weeks. National school certificate exams have been delayed and many thousands have been unable to sit the exams or are unaccounted for.

You can make the repairs to this and our other damaged elementary schools possible. Please consider donating to us so we can carry out these vital repairs and help little girls return to the classroom safely.

Donate Now

Orphan Pupils from the Elementary schools we support

Read more about the devastating impact  of flooding on communities in Sudan and our Orphans Elementary Schooling Program in our latest Blogpost:

Women's Literacy Blog