12 days of Listmas – our 2022 achievements

In the spirit of the 12 days of Christmas, here are 12 achievements we’re incredibly proud of this year. 

1. We continued to support hundreds of individuals from Sudan who have come to the UK to seek asylum, whether by providing a winter jacket, facilitating contact with their lawyer, sharing expert country information on Sudan drawing from our own research and reports, or being a listening ear at the end of a phone, or in-person as lockdown lifted. 

2. We secured funding for a new caseworker role in 2023, for which we’ll be recruiting in the new year, thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund. This will allow us to increase our reach and capacity, and enable us to support every individual who comes to us for help. Watch this space for our recruitment details! 

3. Our team has also grown in other ways, making use of the skills and capacities of the Sudanese community, including from a human rights expert helping us to archive, document, and digitise the children’s drawings of the genocide in Darfur; an advocacy and policy specialist who will help us coordinate the UK-Sudan advocacy working group; an accountant who will hopefully support us with book-keeping; a woman interested in women’s empowerment supporting a related project; and a mental health academic and practitioner who will deliver training on self- and community-care in the new year.  

4. We also started the process of growing our Board, engaging in recruitment of 2 new trustees, who will be appointed in 2023. They bring with them a wealth of experience both as Sudanese individuals, and of lived and learned experience of the UK’s immigration system. This process was led by our new and energetic Chair. 

5. We hosted a workshop for Sudanese women which formally launched our ‘peace by piece’ project. In this, groups of women creatively decorated squares of fabric to represent their uniqueness as women, as Sudanese individuals, and as activists. The completed squares will be sewn together to form a giant toub which is Sudan’s traditional dress, as a living, growing tool for advocacy - especially as more and more women’s groups nationwide, and beyond, submit their pieces. 

6. We helped the HUDO Centre launch an app on Human Rights Day, which for the 1st time provides grassroots access to speakers of Sudanese languages, of Moro, Fur, Uduk, Massaleit, or Lumun, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

7. We made more trips into the community as lockdown lifted, and we were able to travel freely to the areas of the country where those seeking asylum are dispersed by the Home Office, whether in prison-like hotels, or to remote and often inadequate initial shared accommodation. We also helped connect communities to local and creative opportunities like performances of Sudan-focused play Mohand & Peter or ‘connection workshops’ based on theatre and clowning. 

8. We helped over 80 women and children associated with the London Sudanese women’s group visit Hampton Court Palace as part of an integrative and cultural mental health day. For many it was their first trip outside of the capital since 2020 and the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. 

9. We maintained our commitment to Sudan, and to drawing attention to abuses there, including in historically under-represented regions, and especially following the October 2021 military coup which derailed tentative steps the country was taking towards freedom, peace, and justice in the transition era. 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary of the internationally recognised start of the Darfur genocide in 2003. 2024 will mark our own 20th anniversary as an organisation under the name Waging Peace. 

10. We helped dozens of Sudanese individuals engage in training, education, or empowerment, including to step into their own personal leadership potential via peer support forums. 

11. We remained committed to compassion as one of our key charity values, and co-directors Maddy and Sonja maintained a close relationship, joint leadership, and friendship, even in challenging times. 

12. We built our wonderful following of individuals who want to learn, and advocate, about Sudan, and for individuals from Sudan seeking asylum in the UK, including on our Twitter and Facebook pages. Thank you for being among their number!  

We hope you have a restful winter break, and a fantastic start to 2023.