Summer in Sudan

Many of you have asked what exactly I will be doing this summer, so what follows is the "short blurb version" I promised.

First, I want to acknowledge Nancy Klavans, who funds the Nancy Germeshausen Klavans Fellowship, and Victoria Budson, the Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the KSG. Their generous support made my summer in the Sudan possible. I also want to acknowledge Evelyn Thornton at The Initiative for Inclusive Security who's been working with me for several months to plan my summer and connect with the organizations I'll be working with.

I will be working with two women's organizations based in Khartoum - the Salmmah Women's Resource Centre and the Community Development Association. Through Salmmah I will be working on SuWEP - Sudanese Women's Empowerment for Peace - which is bringing women leaders from the north and south of Sudan together to work on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 that ended over two decades of fighting between the north and south. I will be doing seminars and workshops on elections, fundraising, advocacy, etc. in Khartoum (north) and Juba (south) for the women in this program. Then I'll be working with the Community Development Association on Darfurian women's participation in the Darfur peace process, helping to identify and convene women leaders in and from Darfur who should be included in the ongoing dialogue and peace process.

Yes, this is quite a bit of work for one summer and probably only a portion of it will be realized, particularly relating to the Darfur peace process, but I'm determined to give it all my best shot and see what pans out in the end.