Poorest of Sudan's Poor--Displaced AND Disabled

Disabled People International sponsors a community school with an enrollment of 600+. Student backgrounds reflect the ethnic and religious diversity of Salama and Soba-Aradi, with a virtually equal distribution of girls and boys in preschool and grades one through eight.

Alfonse Muni (far l), 44, founder of DPI, summed up: "When we started, we felt even though we as disabled people had suffered much, we couldn't stand by and let others suffer while we tried to help only ourselves. Our struggle was one with the community. We came from the same background and endured the same constraints. We were in fact lucky--most of us have managed to educate ourselves and do something with our lives. Maybe we could help others do the same."

"Without this school, I would not be able to get an education. I would be on the street, maybe getting into trouble, or maybe just working for nothing with no future. This school gives me hope."

...of doing my best," so says Um Hani Malud (r), 30, originally from the Blue Nile area of southern Sudan, but now displaced in a settlement. "I don't think others should either," concluded the founder of El Nahda Society for the Physically Disabled, established in 2005 by disabled teachers to assist everyone--disabled or not.