PENHA and the Pastoral Environmentalist Association in Kassala State (PEAKS) jointly implemented a women’s empowerment training activities focusing on enhancing the handicrafts and improving small animals breeding in rural Kassala of the Eastern Sudan. The project activity was intended to provide a unique opportunity for pastoralist communities to improve the use of technology, design, innovation and develop market linkages.

The main objective of the training was to develop the handicraft skills of the women pastoral communities and to improve livestock production among the pastoralist within their local environment. A two-day workshop for each of the four communities of Wad Sharifie, Awad, Awadat and Gulsa was organized by PEAKS where the event saw the participation of 140 women. Most of the participants of this training were active community member from the targeted communities in the area.

The women capacity training programme was divided into four technical sessions – technology and knowledge sharing and dissemination; customer oriented design and product development; skills enhancement towards competitiveness in international market; and market linkage – national and international. Moreover, the training was included the importance of the handicraft in improving the livelihoods of the pastoral and agro-pastoral women and their families, and reducing poverty. Topic like exploiting the availability local fodder types, and promoting the importance of sharing and exchanging experiences.

The main outputs achieved through this activity include; the training of 140 women from 4 communities on handicraft and small animals breeding; knowledge and skills enhancement on the handicraft industry; expansion the participants’ links with various stakeholders; and awareness creation on the importance of improved productivity for reducing poverty.

To conclude, the training was successful and achieved intended objectives as the content of the training was delivered in easily understandable way which helped the message to be conveyed well.

This material extracted from report produced by the PEAKS staff and Almedani Alhassen, PENHA Research Associate in Sudan.