About Ngaathaje Development Project (NDP)

Promote awareness about the dire situation of Southern eastern Sudan , especially Wanding in the Nasir region Meet urgent needs for: safe shelter, food and water; health care; farming, fishing, and construction tools
Build schools, housing, and healthcare facilities as well as provide well- trained faculty to support and run the educational system
Develop resources for local schools and community institutions (churches, community centers, common granaries, etc.).
Implement systems for cultivate food and purify water Develop partner relationships to provide the expertise of educators and healthcare practitioners Institute micro-finance programs and job training to support to local entrepreneurs
Create aid and stimulate local economies by providing job- and life-skills training
Carryout locally, financially, and environmentally sustainable development ultimately making the work of NDP obsolete
Partner with local agencies, communities, institutions, and individuals within the U.S. and the Wanding area to create positive sustainable change.
Through this partnership, create awareness and educate the world of the dire situation of southeast Sudan

Our Values and Philosophy
We believe that the best way to transform a community for the better is through development, not just through handouts; instead, we intend to provide tools, skills, and opportunities to assist the people of southeastern Sudan to lift themselves up from chaos, disease, nearly nonexistent education, and poverty. We believe that when human beings come together to volunteer their time and energy there will be change, real change, no matter how hard and depressing situation may be. We believe this is even true when the affected for people who are in despair and without hope because they have lost everything – their homes, family members, health and well-being.

We intend to begin in Wanding by providing for up to 60,000 souls emergency supplies, food and safe water, and in the long term, infrastructure development focusing on health, education, and economic development. 1. Health Care: During the fierce 40-year civil war, many people lost their lives or were displaced (as my story illustrates) by violence, but perhaps even more lost their lives to diseases that, with adequate sanitation and water and medication, are not usually fatal. People who have been devastated economically and socially are without resources and cannot resist even basic disease. For these reasons, our first efforts concern health care: we intend to open health clinics to reduce fatalities from cholera, malaria, and other infectious diseases although the average population of Wanding is 60,000 people, only 4,000 people live there now. The surviving rest, still in refugee camps in neighboring countries, are scheduled to return home in 2009, so we feel a tremendous urgency to ensure at least emergency supplies and clean water and uncontaminated food first and then clinics and other infrastructure needs later. Let’s consider the immediate elements necessary to the returning populations’ health.

Clean water: In Wanding, people continue to drink contaminated water from rivers, streams, lakes, and pools; water-borne and water-related infections kill many people every year. Therefore, we intend to assist the people in Wanding by providing appropriate tools for digging wells from which to extract good water; purification technology; and whatever other resources to ensure that the population has enough water for safe, hygienic use and for agricultural use. Mosquito nets and tents: The civil war devastated the Wanding region, destroying most housing, interrupting education, and stopping what road-building and other infrastructure development there was. People returning to Wanding will be most likely without housing, so it’s imperative that the Ngaathaje Development Project (NDP) provide at minimum tents and mosquito netting to protect against that other carrier of disease, mosquitoes. Health-care clinics: If we are successful in providing preventive resources – clean water, tents, mosquito nets – then we must, for the mid- and long-term well-being of people in Wanding, construct and staff health clinics, which will also house emergency foodstuff and other emergency equipment. The clinics will provide basic and advanced care relevant to the area: general, preventive and pre-natal care; specialized ophthalmologic care for high incidences of cataracts, glaucoma, and trachoma; AIDS counseling and treatment; and first aid for accidents and incidences of violence.

2. Educational Needs:
Many areas in Sudan, including Wanding in the Southeast, have not had solid education systems, and those villages that did offer education resources lost their ability to continue them during the civil war. As a result, most Sudanese are illiterate, and this is true of Wanding. It is essential to provide elementary education in Wanding if refugees are going to return. Ultimately, our goal is to create an educational environment through which every child has access to K-8 education at a minimum; adults have access to literacy and leadership or other relevant economic-development trainings; and teachers are thoroughly trained and compensated. In the long term, there is no better way to assure sustainability of communities and their economic development.

3. Economic Empowerment
Finally, we understand that a healthy and educated populace still needs economic opportunity to build business into sustainable enterprises. Currently the Wanding region has no essential infrastructure to support health care, education, social and political development, and economic well-being: no information or communication systems; no good roads; no institutions for training or incubation of economic enterprises. Our mission is to reduce (and end) poverty so that Wanding can become a healthy, educated and self-supporting region. To achieve this we will work with the community to increase resources, equipment, and skills for farming, construction, communication systems (including computer networking), health care, and education.