Sudan & South Sudan

Five Talents recently held its eighth annual X-OUT Poverty Golf Classic at 1757 Golf Club in Dulles, Virginia, and, as I'm the new communications person at Five Talents, you would have seen me running around with a digital video recorder and talking with golfers, board members and colleagues.

While watching the golfers scare stray balls out of the brush and fish still more out of the water traps, I thought about how hard it is to get that little white ball in the hole—and also about how hard it is to get food on the plate of the impoverished in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Rebecca. Sarah. Natalana. These are just a few of the Sudanese women who have seen their lives and families transformed because of the work of Five Talents and its local partners.

Working for Change in Sudan: Vienna-based Five Talents extend helping hand

March 17, 2011
Vienna Connection
By Christy Steele

From their office in Vienna the staff of the non-profit organization, Five Talents, works to bring about positive change in communities around the globe. Most recently, the staff invited community members to hear from two program partners who have been on the ground in Southern Sudan for the past five years developing a microfinance program.

I was one of the lucky ones. I’m a Dinka and had three older brothers and sisters, and my parents sent all of us to school. But, my hopes of attending university ended with the death of my father when I was just a teenager.

Not too many years later, one of my sisters became pregnant, and I became the proud aunt of twin girls. But when my nieces were only six, not only did their mother – my sister – tragically die, but so did their father.

There was no question in my mind. I was taking in those little girls and raising them as my own.

When I was just a little girl, I noticed that other children in my village had a mom and a dad. When I asked my mom why, tears would fill her eyes…

You see, I was the first child, and my father couldn’t wait to have a son. But, when I was born and he saw that I was a girl, he sent my mother away saying, “let me be a gift to my mother.”

My father remarried, again in hopes of having a son. For boys are highly valued in South Sudan. His second wife became pregnant, but she too gave birth to a little girl. My father was so upset that he hung himself.

Anglican microfinance initiative 'keeping Sudanese husbands faithful'

February 18, 2011
Bor Globe Network

A group of women in southern Sudan who have set up their own Body Shop-style business producing and selling Women’s cosmetics are suggesting that the fragrances can keep men faithful.

The women, who are members of the Anglican microfinance initiative Five Talents, joked with one of the charity’s trustees, Shona Passfield, that one particular product was so good women who bought it would no longer have to worry about their husbands cheating on them.

Anglican microfinance initiative 'keeping Sudanese husbands faithful'

February 18, 2011
Microfinance Africa

A group of women in southern Sudan who have set up their own Body Shop-style business producing and selling women’s cosmetics are suggesting that the fragrances can keep men faithful.

The women, who are members of the Anglican microfinance initiative Five Talents, joked with one of the charity’s trustees, Shona Passfield, that one particular product was so good women who bought it would no longer have to worry about their husbands cheating on them.

Anglican microfinance initiative 'keeping Sudanese husbands faithful'

February 17, 2011
Anglican Communion News Service

A group of women in southern Sudan who have set up their own Body Shop-style business producing and selling women’s cosmetics are suggesting that the fragrances can keep men faithful.

The women, who are members of the Anglican microfinance initiative Five Talents, joked with one of the charity’s trustees, Shona Passfield, that one particular product was so good women who bought it would no longer have to worry about their husbands cheating on them.

Sudan: Anglican Microfinance Initiative 'Keeping Sudanese Husbands Faithful'

February 17, 2011
allAfrica.com

A group of women in southern Sudan who have set up their own Body Shop-style business producing and selling women's cosmetics are suggesting that the fragrances can keep men faithful.

The women, who are members of the Anglican microfinance initiative Five Talents, joked with one of the charity's trustees, Shona Passfield, that one particular product was so good women who bought it would no longer have to worry about their husbands cheating on them.