If good things are worth the wait, then the state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal in Southern Sudan is ecstatic this month with the arrival of GBA teams implementing “Enterprise Relief”.

 

Bahr el Ghazal is remote. The state takes its name from the Bahr el Ghazal River which flows east through Sudan, eventually forming the White Nile. Much of the area consists of marshy wetlands, where subsistence farming and cattle herding provide the principle income for many of Bahr el Ghazal’s Dinka inhabitants.

 

Almost the entire population of Bahr el Ghazal subsists on an income less than $1.50 per person, per day. 

Situated just south of Southern Darfur, the state has also seen an influx of refugees from the ongoing Darfur crisis.

 

In an area already ill-equipped to sustain the current population, the plight of newly arriving refugees is often grim. GBA’s local empowerment projects will target both those native to Bahr el Ghazal as well as those fleeing the Darfur war in search of safety and prosperity for their devastated families.

 

GBA teams, arriving from the US, Ghana, and Khartoum in Northern Sudan, are converging this month on the small Bahr el Ghazal town of Akuem.

 

Akuem will be the new base of operations for the first-of-its-kind micro-finance program in the region. When the program is operational in January of 2010, it will employee several full-time staff members and disperse more $30,000 of loans to an estimated 300 Bahr el Ghazal residents - and this is just the beginning. GBA plans to expand the program into neighboring cities and villages as additional loan capital is secured throughout the first quarter of 2010.

 

In addition to providing a means of achieving a sustainable income for hundreds of families, this new micro-finance institution will also provide a platform for GBA to launch new business training programs into the region in the months and years ahead.

Entrepreneurial businesses come in
all shapes and sizes in
Bahr el Ghazal.  In the town of Aweil,
a horse and cart take the place
of a gasoline tanker.

 

 

GBA needs your assistance this month in helping us create, administer, and run the administrative structure that will be the backbone of our micro-lending program in Bahr el Ghazal. Your financial support in October will help us fund the launching of our Bahr el Ghazal micro-enterprise institution. It will enable us to provide hundreds of loans to those patiently awaiting their empowerment opportunity in Bahr el Ghazal, right now.
 

The wait for empowerment assistance is over for many in Bahr el Ghazal this month.  Thank you for being a part of our efforts in this often forgotten region.  Your financial support is changing lives – one new micro-business at a time! Also, help us spread the word by following us on Facebook and Twitter – and invite your friends to, as well.

 

Sincerely,