Sudan & South Sudan

Partners:

• World Concern
• The Mothers’ Union
• The Episcopal Church of Sudan, Diocese of Wau

Program Type and Services:

• “Savings-Led”

The program offers microcredit through Financial Services Associations (FSAs) and Accumulated Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs). ASCA groups determine the terms for the loans from their savings, rates of interest, length and any fees or penalties, making them extremely able to meet local demand and to react to local conditions quickly.

Training focus:

• Adult literacy and education
• Business development training: planning, marketing, pricing
• Social capital development among entrepreneurs
• Biblical values in the marketplace training
• Household budgeting and saving

The Community

This under-served area along the border of South Sudan and Sudan contains a population of more than 500,000 people.  With the independence of South Sudan, there is an expectation of enormous economic growth because the region is endowed with great natural resources. There is also a great opportunity for the local population to engage in diverse business opportunities.

At the same time, the region still faces plenty of risks despite the formal separation of Sudan and South Sudan. Infrequent fighting continues in some disputed border areas. Inter-clan conflicts could also adversely affect the program. The area also experiences conflicts between host and pastoral communities due to competition for pasture land and water.

The Program

The innovative microfinance program in the village of Lietnhom is transitioning from the ravages of more than 20 years of war. Years after the peace agreement, hundreds of thousands were still internally displaced and others who had found a home were looking to rebuild their shattered lives.

Working with a consortium of partners including the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Five Talents is assisting a village banking project in Wau in the state of Western Bahr el Ghazal. This is one of the first projects of this type in South Sudan.

The target of this project is the Dinka community in Bahr el Ghazal. The project will empower mainly women by offering credit, literacy and numeracy skills to develop their small scale businesses and increase their competency. In the area, most households are headed by women, as men are engaged in the armed forces. Currently, women survive by doing petty merchandise, beer brewing, keeping cows, and living off what they grow.

Five Talents is also working with Mothers' Union in Khartoum, Sudan, to nurture a literacy and financial education program.

The Need

Five Talents hopes this program will be a model that can be expanded and replicated into other parts of the Wau Diocese and across South Sudan, if funding is found. In 2012, we exceeded our goal of reaching 5,470 clients in Sudan and South Sudan by almost 500.

We'd appreciate your continued prayers for this transformative program. Please help us expand our work in South Sudan and Sudan either by making a one-time donation or by signing up to "Walk with Us" as a recurring donor. A monthly gift of $10 will transform up to five lives.

Are you on Facebook? Become an online advocate for Five Talents! Our online "flash drive" has everything you need to promote the work and mission of Five Talents.

Updated December 2012

Over the next three weeks, you'll have to decide on gifts for a select group of friends and family members.

Fortunately, we've got a gift idea that we think you'll love: Instead of buying them a Starbucks gift card, or a tree ornament, send your loved ones a Five Talents e-card.

Here's how it works:

• Visit our eGift Catalog and pick from among the 10 e-card options. Prices range from $25 to $50. Every e-card features beautiful photography that captures an aspect of Five Talents' work in a particular country. Your purchase will count as a donation for that particular country and program.
• At the end of your transaction, you will be prompted to enter the e-mail addresses of either 5 individuals (for every $25 e-card) or 10 individuals (for every $50 e-card). Each person will receive an e-card explaining that a gift was made in his or her honor towards Five Talents' work in, for example, savings group formation in South Sudan (see the above e-card image of the "One Nation" savings group in South Sudan).

Your e-card purchases are tax-deductible, and they are a great way to spread holiday cheer and share the joy of giving with your loved ones.

With every e-card purchase, you are contributing to the transformation of lives in some of the most under-served communities in the world.

Click here to send a set of Five Talents e-cards today!

If you've been waiting for an opportunity to introduce a few friends to Five Talents, December 5 is the day.

Participate in the last matching gift opportunity of 2012 by inviting three friends to join you in donating $5 to Five Talents. Your combined $20 will be matched by a generous donor and become $40.

Your advocacy for Five Talents is critical as we seek to reach even more women and men in places like South Sudan, Myanmar and Indonesia.

Five Talents equips, trains and empowers women and men who find themselves struggling to sustain a micro-enterprise. By telling your friends and loved ones about Five Talents and its mission, you give us increased credibility.

Please consider sharing this blog post on Facebook, or sending the link via e-mail to a few loved ones who share your passion for the global poor.

You may also want to share this video that goes inside our program in Indonesia. It's a great introduction to the work that Five Talents is doing all over the world.

Editor's Note: In 2010 and 2011, we asked our friends and supporters to participate in a matching grant opportunity for a new project with Mothers' Union in our South Sudan program. Here, Five Talents Program Director Suzanne Schultz Middleton shares some exciting news about the success of the project.

Malakal Diocese is, of course, located in the newly independent Republic of South Sudan and is a part of the Literacy and Financial Education Program (LFEP) which operates in five areas in South Sudan, as well as in Khartoum in the Republic of Sudan. I want to share Malakal's story and give you news of the program's progress.

Malakal is the capital of Upper Nile state and sits mid-way between Khartoum, the capital of Sudan (some 700 km to the north), and Juba, the capital of South Sudan. This area suffered heavily during decades of intermittent civil war that ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Seven years later, Upper Nile state and Malakal remain isolated and under-developed.

Malakal's history, community and people represent many of the challenges faced by South Sudan. Fighting between local militia left more than 40 people dead, including one of the volunteer community facilitators for the LFEP. Rates of infant and maternal mortality, school enrolment and sanitation are among Sudan's lowest.

There are ethnic tensions and armed conflicts across the border with Sudan that have brought over 100,000 people to refugee camps in Upper Nile State.

I can't imagine more difficult circumstances and uncertainty than what the people of Malakal face.

This holiday season, make a gift that will transform the lives of women and men in places like South Sudan, Myanmar, Indonesia and Peru.

With the Five Talents E-Gift Catalog you can invest in a program of your choice, such as savings group formation in South Sudan, or business training in Myanmar. You can then send your friends and family an exclusive e-card that reflects your donation!

Purchases from the Five Talents E-Gift Catalog are tax-deductible and come with an e-card that you can e-mail to as many as 10 loved ones.

Let's say you planned to make a donation to Five Talents for Thanksgiving. If you make your gift through the E-Gift Catalog, you can choose the program you want to support – for example, our savings-led program in South Sudan.

In this photo, taken by David Middleton for Five Talents, a family stands outside their home in Lietnhom, South Sudan.

Last week, we shared a few snapshots of the transformation that is happening in South Sudan, thanks in part to the savings groups that Five Talents and its partner World Concern are setting up in places like Lietnhom.

Savings groups are valuable, in part, because of their effect on extended family.

There's an identity that comes with being in a savings group, explained Suzanne in last week's blog post. She told the story of a man who came to a group meeting in Wau and said, "I'm not a member of the group, but I'm here to represent my brother who died, who was a member of the group. I want the group to let his son take his membership."

"That really blew me away," said Suzanne. "I can see now the meaning of that group to that family. It was a legacy that this father wanted for his son. I haven't processed it all, but that really was quite amazing. We look at the benefit of saving and borrowing and collective risk in some community, but there's a lot more to it."

This beautiful portrait features members of the "One Nation" savings group in Kuajok, South Sudan.

They are a group of merchants from different parts of the country, including Khartoum and Abyei, and they are representative of what is happening all over South Sudan. The civil war and tribal violence have displaced many people from their hometowns. Savings groups like this one gain access to financial services and have an opportunity to re-establish ties to a stable community.

The group's name, "One Nation", reflects the members' hope that, despite their country's history, citizens from all tribes and backgrounds can come together as one and help to build a new identity.