By Mastora Bakhiet | Executive Director
Soap Making Project Update Report
Project Title: Women-Led Livelihoods, Protection & Emergency Response for Darfuri Communities
Organization: Darfur Women Network (DWN)
Reporting Period: 2024–2025
Overview
Darfur Women Network (DWN) extends its deepest gratitude to GlobalGiving, our donors, partners, and advocates for standing with the people of Darfur during one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in recent history. Your support has enabled DWN to deliver life-saving assistance, restore dignity, and protect women and children affected by genocide, siege, famine, and forced displacement in Sudan and eastern Chad.
This reporting period reflects both extraordinary loss and extraordinary resilience. While violence by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) destroyed communities and livelihoods in El Fasher and surrounding areas, your support allowed DWN to pivot rapidly—saving lives while sustaining women-led solutions built over years.
Key Achievements & Impact
1. Soap-Making Incubator Project – Women’s Livelihoods
Before the escalation of violence in April 2023, DWN’s soap-making incubator was progressing toward a sustainable recovery model. With GlobalGiving-linked support and solidarity , we empowered displaced women from four camps with skills in producing bar soap, liquid soap, and detergent, alongside training in teamwork, children’s rights, and the importance of education.
Despite minimal resources and repeated displacement, these women transformed skills into income, dignity, and leadership. The project demonstrated that women-led livelihoods remain viable even in extreme crisis, though expansion is urgently needed to meet growing demand.
Impact Highlights:
2. Emergency Context: El Fasher & Forced Displacement
El Fasher, once a vibrant city, has endured over two years of siege, followed by RSF takeover marked by mass killings, sexual violence, and destruction. Civilians were trapped without food, medicine, or shelter. Survivors report executions of injured patients, health workers, professors, journalists, and community leaders. Many victims were already displaced survivors of the 2003 Darfur genocide.
As violence escalated, thousands fled toward eastern Chad. Refugees arriving through border points such as El Tina (Al-Tiné) face severe shortages of food, water, shelter, sanitation, and protection.
This is not a civil war—it is a war on civilians.
3. Emerging Child Protection Crisis – El Tina, Chad
DWN is currently assessing the needs of over 50 children aged 4–8 who crossed into El Tina, Chad. Many arrived unaccompanied or separated from their families, effectively orphaned by violence, famine, and flight.
These children urgently need:
DWN is preparing targeted interventions focused on child protection, trauma-informed care, and basic services, as humanitarian needs far exceed available resources.
Challenges
Despite these barriers, DWN’s community-led, women-centered approach has allowed us to operate effectively in frontline and high-risk environments.
Looking Ahead
While this reporting period reflects immense loss, it also confirms a vital lesson: community-led, women-powered solutions save lives. DWN remains committed to expanding women’s livelihoods, protecting children, and delivering emergency aid—while laying the groundwork for long-term recovery when peace allows.
Our partnership through GlobalGiving continues to be a lifeline. Together, we are not only responding to crisis—we are preserving dignity, resilience, and hope. Here is your link to your project: http://goto.gg/51384
Thank you for standing with Darfur.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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