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The Saint Vincent De Paul Team
The Satellites
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Dr. Ali Siddig Ahmed
Muslim.
Speaks English and a bit French.
In charge of the relations with the other SVDP Societies, and with top government officials. He also represents SVDP in court (labour cases), with a lawer if needed.
He helped making enter at university several of our ex-street children.
Head of Nilein University (one of the 30 universities in Khartoum). He makes lectures in military academics, on ethnic, psychological and social problems. He wrote 4 books about the structures of Sudanese society.
Has lived in Paris for 10 years, where he studied Sociology; he was the leader of the Sudanese community in France.
“I was a friend of Dr Tadros’, Kamal’s father. I have been involved in SVDP for 20 years now.” |
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Mutwakil Ahmed Ali
Public relations with authorities
Age: 41
Married, 3 children
Muslim
Collaborates with SVDP since 1995.
Met Kamal in 1986, on a project for the street children.
Has used to work in the government, at the Social Welfare Department, where he was in charge of the coordination between the different department ministries.
According to Kamal, he is “a true friend of SVDP”. In 1993, when the government closed SVDP, took everything (the cars, the documents), and closed the bank accounts, Mutwakil did a lot to make the Society registered again : he put Kamal personally in touch with so many people that they managed to open again.
He likes sports, and is a member of the Merir Football Club (the biggest one).
“Kamal has a conscience and the sense of friendship. There is no duplicity in him. Therefore I am not afraid to fix an appointment with a minister. I wish I could promote the work of SVDP throughout Sudan.” |
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Mohammed Rammattalla
Consultant. Represents SVDP in the meetings with the government.
“I’m not working as a consultant ! I’m working as everything… Batman !” (laughs)
“I started my work in the government in 1968 as a teacher, then in 1993 as a commissioner of the Humanitarian Affair Commission, an office controlling the work of the NGOs in Sudan until 2002.”
According to Kamal, “He is the man thanks to whom SVDP could open again.”
“It is a funny story, I’m proud to tell you. I received a piece of information that SVDP had been closed due to problems with the Security. I saw the papers, and due to my opinion, I didn’t find anything. I asked the Vice President: “Why is this NGO closed? It is helping the government a lot: you have a problem with street children and you cannot tackle it. You are not losing money on it. It employs only Sudanese people... He called the head of he Security.
There are five NGOs working with street children, three of them are Sudanese... People here, when they speak about this thing, they speak in a context of colonisation... Everything abroad is nice... The NGO which is led by a Christian person is not mentioned even by the people who wrote books about street children.
Nevertheless, SVDP is now written consultant for the NGO in the Counsel of Ministers. If there is any problem with street children, it is the first NGO to be consulted by the Ministry for Social Affair. And presently, the UN is asking Sudan to write reports on child rights... There are 17 NGOs writing a report, parallel to the government one, and this report will be sent to the UN in Geneva. I am the one writing on behalf of SVDP.
Many NGO (national or international) are not working like SVDP. We are now accepted in many areas of the government. SVDP has a very nice reputation with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. But still we have to work low-profile.
But I told Kamal: “If the government wants to give us kids, he should help us. I am not going to accept any children, unless the government will pay for it.”
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Mohammed El Hassen
Member of the Board.
Joined the Police in 1962.
Elected in 1985 as a member of the Executive Committee of Interpol, representing Africa.
Retired from the Police in 1989, due to misunderstanding with the government at that time.
“I was a very good friend of Kamal’s brother’s, Dr Tadros. That is how I started helping SVDP. This society is doing a great work, we appreciate it. This achievement is not due to the financial support, it is due to the hard work and the commitment of Kamal and his team.
For instance, Kamal asks me to get the visas for his visitors. I have good relations with the officials concerned. If you want to get a visa from here, you have to undergo a lot of procedures (Ministry of Social Welfare, then the Police). It is better to get it from abroad.
The government has an opinion against all the NGOs, and used to be suspicious about SVDP as well.”
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Hassan Martin
Health awareness, first aid, HIV Program – Responsible for our 5 centres which provide training to 1000 persons a year (4 groups of 50 people per year and by centre).
Place of birth: Wow.
Ethnic group: Balanda.
Muslim
Belongs to the Sudanese Red Crescent that cooperates with SVDP in setting up this training workshop.
“The certificates delivered are recognized by the government. After a training period of two months, those who obtain their diplomas have the possibility of continuing their training in the hospital. They then have the opportunity of being engaged as medical assistants. Thirty of them have been engaged since this type of training was introduced!
We have also set up a program in Rank (South) and Wada Cona (Upper Nile). Our graduates gave injections to 65 000 people during the epidemic of meningitis, three years ago. We have changed the environment in Rank. The 300 people tried to clean the city and showed it to the other...”
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Dr Awut Deng
Friday clinic – General Practitioner (like all the doctors of these clinics, she is not paid by SVDP but directly by the patients, to the extent that they can afford to pay)
Place of birth: England
Origin: Abei, Bahr El Ghazal
Arrived in Khartoum at 3.
Graduated in medicine 2 years ago.
"I heard about SVDP through colleagues, physicians who were working in Friday clinics. We doctors work in pairs, and treat between 60 and 80 people every Friday. I have been working in Gabarona so far, but I am going to be transferred to the new Friday clinic of the Gebel Awlia farm. It's wonderful to be able to work helping other people."
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Dr. Martina Costa
Friday clinic in Wad El Bashir - Doctor
Age: 24
Place of birth: Khartoum; then raised in Wow (South)
Has just completed her internship in otorhinolaryngology.
Joined SVDP in 2005, after having graduated.
“I was told there were in need with more doctors… Sometimes, there is lack of medicines, and those people, they cannot afford to buy it from outside. Sometime we need more investigations than in our laboratory (which makes general investigation). Now we have the giardiesis, intestinal worms; also, most of the people they have the malaria. Rheumatism, asthma, chest infection. There is less malnutrition… In 2008, I have to do the national service, during almost one year. I‘ll be sent in a place I chose. Some colleagues went in the South and came back. The hospitals have nothing. There is no organization. We need our senior doctors to go there before.”
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Dr Jacqueline Agel
Friday clinics - General Practitioner
Place of birth: North Bahr El Ghazal.
Catholic
Arrived in Khartoum in 1981.
Working with SVDP since 2006
“Some of my colleagues were working there in SVDP, and when they left, I decided to replace them. I am working in Khartoum Hospital. Every Friday, in Omdurman, in SVDP’s Friday clinic, treating between 30 and 40 persons. Sometimes I go on mobile clinics...”
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Wani Tombe
Did a survey of Saint Vincent de Paul work that has been published.
Place of birth: Juba.
Refugee in England, for almost 20 years
Education: lawyer, engineer.
Professional background: law teacher in the University of Reading.
Returned in Khartoum 2 years ago.
In June, he established a social, economical, cultural and political, daily newspaper, “The advocate”.
“The current situation in Sudan is difficult for enterprises like ours, even though there is a claim of freedom of press, we have death threats...
I did a survey of Saint Vincent work, which is about the first of its type in all Africa.
If you look at the task of this organisation, it’s immense! It is giving services to sections of communities that the government discards. SVDP is an academic, economic, religious and human source of inspiration, a manual for all university, especially in community development departments. Its experience needs to be duplicated in Africa. It is producing human resources for the country: medical doctors, engineers... By the way, SVDP alumni could create an association.
We should be able to formalize the publication of material and information about SVDP, for instance through a permanent page in my newspaper.”
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Dr Mekalilie Benjamin Bol
Academic Secretary of University of Upper Nile, Malakal - Dean of Agriculture
In 2007, made a lecture for 20 employees of SVDP: directors of our farms, planters, senior staff.
Age: 44
Education: University in Egypt, Master in Gezira University, PHD in India
“My cousin was working with Kamal. I knew that his organization was helping people I happened to know, who went to university. One day, I received a mail from a collegue, Ernest Frisckencht, in Zürich : “Please, try to help Kamal”.
Since 2002, SVDP owns a 4000 acres piece of land in Wad Dakona. This land could be planted with dura. I can help by setting up new techniques of conserving agriculture environment and soil.
The mechanized agriculture, we know the advantages, but what are the disadvantages? We are destroying the soil, which is the only renewable energy in this world. The problem is how to maintain soil. The way we are doing our agriculture in Sudan is very different from Brazil or Europe, where they have initiated bio agricultures for several years now.
What are these new techniques? You just leave moister content in the soil, and cover it. This way, you are retaining some water in it and feeding some micro-organisms, like worms, which penetrate the soil, give it nutrition, and give infiltration of water. Thus, you are improving the soil, and it is not necessary to irrigate it.
In the first year, you will get no benefit of production. But you don’t plough the soil (no expenses), and you do not use machines (energy savings). Still, you can use hand tools or machineries (machine crushing and covering).
We will start in a very small area first, to test... So we don’t have to cut down trees...”
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