Adam is a Sudanese friend and co-worker of mine here in Darfur. The other night, after work, he began to tell me his story.
“At the age of eleven I left my home in central Darfur and went to live in Khartoum,” he began. Like so many others from the underdeveloped rural areas of Sudan, Khartoum presented him with the only opportunity for advancement in life. It was here that Adam was able to begin his formal education.
“By the time I was seventeen I had reached the 5th grade,” Adam explains. “I wanted to continue my education, I wanted to learn English well and go to university. But my mom was worried about me.” His mother had remained behind in Darfur and was concerned that her son would not return to the homeland – that he would become yet another assimilated citizen of the burgeoning capital city. “I told my mother that I wanted to stay and finish my education. I told her it was important. But she insisted.”
His mother and extended family decided that they would do whatever was necessary to bring Adam back to Darfur. “My mother arranged for me to be married to a girl back home. I was seventeen, she was thirteen.”
Adam told his family that he did not wish to be married, that he wanted to stay in Khartoum and finish his education. But the family, the strongest bond of Sudanese society, would not compromise. For Adam, there was no question of what was to be done. His family had spoken. He dropped his life in Khartoum, returned to Darfur, and was promptly married.
“We were both so young; we understood so little about life,” Adam says now. After the public marriage ceremony, he offered his young bride a way out. “I said to her, ‘I know we don’t really know each other, I know we’re very young, and that this was forced on us… so if you don’t want this, you can walk away right now and we will go on with our lives as best we can. But, if you need this, if you need me to be your husband – I will.’”
The marriage survived. Today, 15 years later, Adam has five children. While he is an articulate, intelligent, and happy man, he still speaks with obvious regret and sadness about the chance for an education which slipped away.
2 responses so far ↓
Laurie // March 21, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Education is such a key in every culture to unlocking health and freedom on so many levels. Is your group trying to do anything in the area of educating the children of Darfur….is there anyone focusing on this? Or is the “aid” solely on the immediate needs?
doug // March 22, 2008 at 8:53 am
Laurie,
Yes, there are quite a few groups who specialize in the provision of education and in assistance to the existing educational infrastructures. Save the Children and UNICEF are two major organizations that come to mind. Especially in the IDP/Refugee camps where the international organizations have a presence, there are quite strong educational and health systems in place – so much so that I suspect many children are getting better education and health care than before the war. Our group is doing some work in the field of education as well, but focusing more on the rural areas.
Yes, you are very right, education is critical to a better life for people everywhere. I’ve added it (next to “Jobs”) on my list of best roads to development…