Education Without Borders (Sudan)
Education Without Borders (EWB) (Sudan) (Arabic: تعليم بلا حدود) is a voluntary Sudanese social movement established in January 2011 to improve school education in villages across Sudan. Its idea is to activate the society and interact with it to grow and expand to the point of becoming as large as the society itself, then blend and dissolve completely resulting in a society that is concerned with education as an ongoing imperative issue. This organization does not have any links to (Canadian organization) (Education Without Borders). The group started with a number of university students and graduates . Its first activity was a campaign to collect used school books from families and private schools and redistribute them to the poorer students and schools. The campaign successfully distributed more than 5,000 books across Sudan. As of September 20, 2012, the Facebook group had 18,197 members. The group was originally called Teachers Without Borders (Arabic: معلمون بلا حدود). The name later changed to Education Without Borders after the authorities in Sudan refused to register it as an NGO, claiming the proposed name requires members of the organization to be registered teachers. Despite the name change, the group remains unregistered with  the Humanitarian Aid Commission of Sudan. Education Without Borders has carried out several projects since its inauguration in 2011 including the My painting, My smile art exhibition (Arabic: Basmati fi Rasmati), which featured paintings by poorer school students from across the country depicting their ambitions, dreams, and hopes for the future. The exhibition also features professional photography by group members depicting the schools of the participating students. This creates an image of both the present situation and the future the organization hopes to create. One of the current projects the group is undertaking is the Translation project - where it hopes  to translate various Wikipedia articles from English to Arabic in various topics (Medical Sciences, Engineering, Science, Economics and History). The end goal of the project is to increase the Arabic content on Wikipedia. Projects. Academic adoption projects. Education Without Borders academic adoption vision is to provide a collection of academic programs for schools that has a shortage of teachers or a lack of cultural and/or health programs. EWB interacts with such schools and assigns a group of its volunteers as teachers to fill the gap, and another group to execute the programs associated with the academic support provided for the  chosen school. During the last year, EWB has adopted Al Inkaz elementary school, which is located in Bahry, as well as Al Jeref reformatory in Khartoum. EWB has fully adopted Al Jeref Reformatory. Academically, it provided teachers for the reformatory school. Socially, a rehabilitation program was started which aims to make the children get involved in various activities including painting, embroidery, theater, music, and singing. EWB has also arranged for many cultural lectures in various topics in coordination with several institutes. Also, a program for teaching children “teach five” has been initiated, where each volunteer adopt five children and commit  to teaching them reading and writing. A library was provided to help in this project. Textbooks collection campaign. "your old book is my new book" is an ongoing campaign which aims to collect, repair and redistribute the used school textbooks amongst the schools in villages and areas in need. This project was the kickoff for EWB. It started in 2011 with collecting 5,000 textbooks and reached more than 8,000 textbooks this year. Schools Rehabilitation Project "Hit & Run". "Hit & run" has an objective to restore and rehabilitate old school buildings in coordination with the residents to create a more fitting environment  for students. The project started mid-year (2011) in two schools: one in Al Kamlen and the other in Soba. Since then, almost 10 schools were rehabilitated (updated to 2012) .EWB always adopted the Deaton-onin principle of aid by not providing direct but rather making the community aware of their problems and empower them to find and own the solution(s). A concept perpetuated by many Nobel laureates besides Angus Deaton. However, the idea was stolen, distorted, and corrupted by 'Adil Almdaras, عديل المدارس' focusing on media coverage, ready-made solutions, direct aid sometimes attributed to (corrupted) government officials, with  less engagement with the targeted community. Concepts project. Social concepts are a core part of EWB, since EWB's objectives exceed mere educational aspects. The project is a sub-group that is concerned with the main concepts in the society that need correction or changing. EWB tries using positive and acceptable methods to change and adjust wrong or improper concepts and beliefs that have spread amongst the society. Concept project follows the same vision of EWB — to dissolve in the society, resulting in a moderate modern society that follows a mature reasonable social demeanour. Translation project. The translation project aims  to boost the usage of the Arabic language on the Internet and to provide students and higher institutes with recent information on the other. It also aims to encourage scientific research as a parallel objective goes hand in hand with the process of academic education. The project plan is to: Currently, various studies are being translated by a group of volunteers who are working on this project at the moment. EWB is now only translating from English to Arabic but the future plans include other languages as well. Reading Day. An annual event organized by EWB for the first time  at 2013 on international author day, more than 5000 readers from Khartoum gathered at the green yard and start the biggest reading group in the history of Sudan. Library and Reading Club. EWB has also founded a library, where the books come from individuals as subscription fees. Every member has to pay three books and are allowed to borrow one book for one week. The goal of the project is to provide reading space at a low cost and with the contribution of society. There are two libraries one is hosted by Zol & Zola club and the other one is  hosted by the University of Khartoum college of engineering. The library organizes cultural event monthly, and usually, it's discussion session in percent of some Sudanese writer like Stila Galiano and Mujahid Khalf Allah This project has reached the 40th book in 2016. Since starting in 2014, the club members have actively discussed and reviewed one book every three weeks. First, a copy of the book uploaded on the project page. Anyone interested can then read it and prepare their review to present it at the club event.