Progress Updates: Women’s Centers, Gangy High School Projects in Darfur

Ante Up For Africa (AUFA) is excited to share more progress reports for two of the projects that its partner and beneficiary, Darfur Peace and Development Organization (DPDO), supports: the Gangy High School project and the Women’s Centers in North Darfur.

Despite a few setbacks that have pushed the Gangy High School project completion date later that expected, construction continues to progress as seen by the photos below taken in April 2010 of the school in El Fasher, North Darfur. According to DPDO, “the large shipping container houses 144 computers for the high school’s computer lab – a technology that we are very excited to bring to the students of Darfur.”

The DPDO Women’s Centers in Abu-Shouk recently celebrated a huge milestone for the camp – their first class of female graduates from its six-month literacy training program. The camps have also set up weavers’ cooperatives, which are part of a fair trade income-generation project for the women. The women are taught how to use basket-weaving skills to make money and provide for their families. And AUFA is pleased to report that DPDO just received a large shipment of completed baskets made from the weavers’ cooperatives at the Women’s Centers in Abu-Shouk and Kassab and is selling the baskets to fair trade businesses in the US.

DPDO representatives stated, “The weavers are very enthusiastic about the project; since most of them have been left as heads of their households, the weavers’ cooperatives provide them with consistent monthly income to support themselves and their families.”

More information about the fair trade income-generation project can be found at www.darfurpeace.org/baskets. Stay tuned here for more progress updates on Gangy High School and the Women’s Centers. A Photo Gallery showcasing the success of the two projects is below.

Ante Up for Africa is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 by Don Cheadle, Annie Duke and Norman Epstein dedicated to helping Africans in need. Ante Up For Africa has raised more than $3 million for their partner organizations Refugees International, Enough Project and Darfur Peace and Development Organization. For more information, visit http://www.anteupforafrica.org/.