PEACE & DEVELOPMENT

peacebuilding

Strives to Promote Peace

Darfur Peace and Development is an organization that strives to promote peace through mediation, reconciliation, integration, and education. One of our main objectives is to address the root causes of conflicts by empowering individuals who have suffered from post-conflict trauma, building trust, addressing social and economic inequality, and promoting co-existence to share available resources to meet basic needs.
We aim to empower communities through active mediation and social cohesion to make social and behavioral changes towards non-violence. We believe in building local capacity where peace constituency can be developed within the vast majority of the affected population, including IDPs and refugees.
approch

Our Approach

Our approach to peacebuilding is community-based. We believe that the community should design the context of activities, prioritize based on their resources with outside support, and implement them locally. We believe in a bottom-up approach to peacebuilding, where communities are empowered to ensure practical peace from the bottom up. We identify influential local actors and community leaders to promote social cohesion and allow civil societies to play a positive role in peacebuilding and endorse the peace process.
We understand that peacebuilding requires a whole-of-society approach that requires a cross-sector of society cohesion, government, and non-governmental actors to collaborate to maintain peace on the ground.

Initiatives

DPDO is working on various initiatives aimed at community mitigation and stabilization, rehabilitation of community infrastructure, promotion of social cohesion, and revitalization of the local economy through women centers, community dialogue and youth empowerment. In order to achieve these goals,
  • Promoting a dialogue to change the culture and attitudes of the communities.
  • Strengthen horizontal linkages among ethnic groups and vertically, to strengthen the relationship between the local community and the state.
  • Youth empowerment due to their importance to future community relations.
Initiatives

Peacebuilding in Darfur

DPDO support local NGOs related to social cohesion through mediation, supporting mitigation in education projects, reconciliation, and local and state level, working inclusively in IDP camps.

  • Community mitigation and stabilization projects, targeted IDP camps, and areas where the international community rarely reaches.
  • Rehabilitation of community infrastructure and promotion of social cohesion, revitalize the local economy through women’s centers. Promote a dialogue to change the culture and the attitude of the communities.
  • Strengthen horizontal linkage between Arabs and African tribes, among the people who had lived together for decades and neighbors before the conflict. Special attention was given to youth due to their role in violence and their importance to future community relations.
  • Vertically, traditional leaders and local authorities were engaged and involved in selecting projects. The focus was to strengthen the relationship between the local community and the state authorities.

 

Outcomes:
Preventing future deterioration opposed the peacebuilding efforts through building trust.
Assessment of root causes of the conflict for policy formation, implementation, and evaluation
Integration of vertical and horizontal social cohesion, capital, sophisticated conflict analysis, and actors mapping.

Challenges:
A wide variety of key actors define their role in peacebuilding.
Local NGOs to build a hub of network and knowledge sharing among civil societies

Peacebuilding Program

Promoting Sustainable Peacebuilding
Sustainable peacebuilding and conflict resolution are achieved by fostering trust and reconciliation among various members of society and conflicting parties. Peacebuilding and reconciliation can only succeed by engaging all stakeholders in the consensus-building process, listening to their needs and ideas, and representing them in the comprehensive plan.

US Envoy Scott Gration and the head of the organization, Dr. Suliman Giddo, in the Sin Siro area
Human Rights Workshop in Nairobi - Open Society New York

One of the primary objectives of the organization’s establishment was peacebuilding. Since 2004, the organization has made every effort to stop wars and has contributed significantly to achieving that goal

  • Participated in the US State Department team's visit to eastern Chad.
  • With support from the MacArthur Foundation, they trained community leaders on reconciliation and acceptance in Nairobi.
  • Contributed to bridging differences between armed movements by holding peacebuilding workshops – Chad, Ethiopia, the United States, Italy, and Sudan.
  • Supervised a confidence-building conference in Italy in collaboration with George Mason University and the American University.
  • With support from the US State Department, held 38 peacebuilding workshops in camps for internally displaced persons and refugees in eastern Chad.
  • Directly contributed to the preparations for the Doha negotiations.

Director of the University of Siena, Italy - Dr. Suliman Giddo - Representative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Trust building workshop in Italy, Hosted Siena University

Dr. Giddo, President of Darfur Peace and Development Organization addresses the UN Security Council Human Rights Committee (June 2006)

Dr. Giddo, participated in Doha Peace talks 2011

The DPDO works on various initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of armed conflict, achieving stability, and rehabilitating community infrastructure. Promoting social cohesion and revitalizing the local economy through women’s centers, community dialogue, and youth empowerment.

To achieve these goals,

  • Encouraging dialogue to change the culture and attitudes of societies.
  • Strengthening horizontal ties between ethnic groups and vertical ones to strengthen the relationship between the local community and the state.
  • Empowering youth due to their importance in future community relations.
  • Encouraging the reintegration of children associated with armed groups into their communities and preventing their re-recruitment.
  • Protecting children from all forms of violence, exploitation, and abuse during armed conflicts.
  • Strengthening the capacity of local communities to protect and support children affected by armed conflict.
  • Strengthening partnerships and coordination between local, national and international organizations to effectively respond to the needs of children affected by armed conflict.
  • Promote the participation of children and youth to ensure their voices are heard and their rights are respected.
15 peace-building workshops with leaders of displaced people in West Darfur camps
14 peace-building workshops with leaders of displaced persons camps in South Darfur
13 peace-building workshops with leaders of displaced camps in the northern state of Darfur

Children Protection Initiative

Mitigating the impact of armed conflicts on children is urgent, critical and essential to ensure the well-being of children and their rights to safety, education, healthcare, and protection from violence.
Children residing in areas affected by armed conflict endure a multitude of grave consequences, including displacement, loss of loved ones, and impoverishment. Children are particularly vulnerable in such situations, as they are unable to defend themselves and often bear the brunt of the conflict’s impact.
The following projects aim to highlight the importance of mitigating the impact of armed conflicts on youth and explore various measures that can be taken to promote and safeguard children’s rights in conflict zones

Protection

  • Advocate for the ratification and implementation of international laws and guidelines that protect the rights of children affected by armed conflicts.
  • Promote the reintegration of children associated with armed groups back into their communities and prevent their re- recruitment.
  • Protect children from all forms of violence, exploitation, and abuse during armed conflicts.
  • Strengthen the capacity of local communities to protect and support children affected by armed conflicts.
  • Strengthen partnerships and coordination between local, national, and international organizations to effectively respond to the needs of children affected by armed conflicts.
  • Increase the participation of children and youth to ensure their voices are heard and their rights are respected.
Protection

Levels of Working

There are three levels that we are working on.

Firstly

Changing knowledge and attitudes to improve the understanding of the root causes of violent conflicts among conflicting parties, shaping public discourse, and increasing mutual understanding.

Secondly

Changing behavior by encouraging people to stop violent conflicts to reduce tension and support integration.

Finally

Structural changes that encourage an early response strengthen the social network, empower local decision-makers, and change public policy and decision-making mechanisms.

Expected Outcomes

We expect to achieve several outcomes, including
  • Preventing future deterioration opposed to the peacebuilding efforts by building trust, assessing the root causes of the conflict for policy formation, implementation, and evaluation.
  • Integrating vertical and horizontal social cohesion and capital, sophisticated conflict analysis, and actor mapping.
  • Empowering domestic communities and local states to lead the process of peacebuilding at all levels.

Reconciliation

Trust Building

Sudan had been affected by the conflict for years before it broke out in April 2023, it expanded to protracted social conflict. It has been fueled by internal and external factors, where over four million people were affected, and over 3.5 million have become internally displaced persons. The conflict is systematically destroying people’s lives and violating their basic human rights.
Unfortunately, that number adds up to the already existing 3 million IDPs in the Darfur region over 300,000 lives have perished since 2003.
The Community in Darfur is still destructed and divided into ethnic lines – Arabs and Africans. Despite the result of the Sudan conflict in general, the Darfur region is highly affected by the conflict where it extended to all states in the region. The main cause of the conflict between pastoralists and sedentary farmers, changing land ownership patterns, will continue to drive the region to more violence.
We highlight the already faltering safety and human Security, leading to people’s increased need for peacemaking workshops for better co-existence. Darfur’s complex conflict has impacted the social structure and created hatred among different ethnic fabrics. Darfur Peace and Development from day one believes in promoting peace through community leaders. Our belief comes from the traditional and common practice of people in Darfur, and how they used to resolve their conflicts. It is a common practice in Darfur to respect and honor Ajaweed. It is a steering committee format agreed upon by community leaders to collect, analyze, and resolve conflicts among ethnic groups.
Recently we worked with Community Leaders in North Darfur, El Fasher to facilitate trust building meetings for co-existence between the fighting parties in Sudan.
Previously with a generous donation from the United States Government and NED we hosted over 40 successful community dialogue workshops in all States in Darfur, including internal displaced Persons and Refugees in Chad.
Reconciliationimage
objectivesimage

Our Objectives

  • To foster and refine a groundswell of inclusive positive community-level and reconciliation.
  • To develop confidence among community members for better co-existence to reach durable and sustainable peace in all localities.
  • To reduce the tension among the different ethnic groups and to promote a secure environment that is conducive to sustained peace-building by supporting processes that resolve disputes.

Implementations

The peace-building and reconciliation process will only succeed if all stakeholders believe that their needs and ideas are heard and represented in the overall plan. Traditionally in Darfur, consensus is achieved by the inclusion of many community members. Following that, representation by individuals in larger can be effective.

Women's Centers Program as a new Peace approach in Darfur

The organization established centers in North Darfur, Abu Shouk Camp and Kassab Camp, and in South Darfur, Kalama Camp. These centers provide comprehensive services to support the recovery of rape victims through psychological sessions, confidence-building courses, and encouraging local production by finding external markets.

Marketing Women Centers products in the United States of America

Programs objectives include:

  • Rape trauma counseling and psychological support for survivors
  • Training to help victims continue long-term work to address the trauma of sexual violence

Handicrafts Cooperative

An income-generating opportunity for women who support their families. The organization provided headquarters at the centers, basic services, and raw materials for making mandala. These were marketed in the United States, and the proceeds were sent to the women in the camps. It was an opportunity to feel productive, rather than solely dependent on organizations, and it had a positive impact. More than 8,000 women benefited from the programs (health, handicrafts, and adult education).

Adult Education

The centers also host a range of community-oriented programs, including adult education initiatives and early childhood learning through kindergartens. In addition, over 600 women have received hands-on training in the use and maintenance of solar stoves — empowering them with sustainable cooking solutions.

Alternative Energy Project - Rice can be cooked in 20 minutes and porridge can be made in half an hour or less.

Solar Cooker used as a tool to reduce the risks of firewood collection and a potential source of income for the women who make it and train others to use it. Twenty-six participants attended our training in Nyala, where internally displaced people are now using our solar stoves.

US Special Envoy for Sudan Scott – in Abu Shouk camp for displaced persons, with the health of Dr. Suliman Giddo,

Dr. Sabah Al-Shabebi (UAE)

Board Member

Dr. Sabah holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Sanaa University, Republic of Yemen. She is a certified obstetrician and gynecologist by the Jordanian Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Arab Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Prior to her current role as Deputy Director of the Modern Medicine Center, she served as an Obstetrics and Gynecology Specialist at the Dubai Health Authority, Director General of Sharjah City Medical Center, and Medical Director of the National Center of Modern Medicine. Dr. Sabah is a member of the Emirates Medical Association and currently serves as the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Consulting and Training Group (Five and One Training Centre) within Mohammed bin Rashid’s projects – Government of Dubai. Additionally, she is the Chairman of KENZEL FACILITY MANAGEMENT within Mohammed bin Rashid’s projects – Government of Dubai. Dr. Sabah’s extensive experience and leadership in the medical industry make her a valuable asset to our DPDO organization.

Shiri Kalai

Assistant of programs

Shiri Kalai is an MSPH student in the Social and Behavioral Interventions program for International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is completing her practicum with HEAL. In addition to joining the HEAL team, Shiri works with Key Point Health Services helping children in Baltimore City and County with their mental health symptom and behavioral management. She is anative Spanish speaker and is excited to work with Darfur Peace and Development to provide humanitarian relief to those in need!

Maisoon Ateem

Deputy Director of Health Program

Maisoon Ateem, Deputy Director of Health Program Maisoon has over 10 years of experience working in the field of public and global health. She graduated from Johns Hopkins Master of Applied Science (MAS) in Global Health Planning and Management and studied as an undergraduate in Sudan. Upon her graduation with a BA in Medical Science from Sudan University of Science and Technology, she worked for the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) among other UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Sudan and the USA. Her focus was conflict-affected populations in particular women and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) with special attention on survivors of sexual violence and people living with HIV/AIDs. She has been involved in all stages of emergency and reproductive health design and implementation and dedicates her career to bridging access to quality healthcare at the community and individual levels. A strong advocate for education, Maisoon works to integrate various aspects of her practical and personal experience into helping to make the world a better place for all.

Susan Burgess-lent

Vice President & Director of Operation

Ms. Burgess-Lent began her career in humanitarian relief and development in 1994 and has worked extensively in East Africa. She is the former Program Director of Darfur Peace and Development Organization (DPDO), responsible for the funding and operation of Kassab Women’s Center, the model on which WCI’s work is based. She previously served as a consultant to the African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation (AIF), InterAction, CEPDA, and on staff at the American Red Cross International Services. In 2019, she published the non-fiction book Trouble Ahead: Dangerous Missions with Desperate People, about her work in Africa. She has presented speeches for many organizations about the impact of war and poverty on women, and solutions that can be implemented for their benefit.

Dr. Sabah Al-Shabebi

Board Member

Dr. Sabah holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Sanaa University, Republic of Yemen. She is a certified obstetrician and gynecologist by the Jordanian Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Arab Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Prior to her current role as Deputy Director of the Modern Medicine Center, she served as an Obstetrics and Gynecology Specialist at the Dubai Health Authority, Director General of Sharjah City Medical Center, and Medical Director of the National Center of Modern Medicine. Dr. Sabah is a member of the Emirates Medical Association and currently serves as the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Consulting and Training Group (Five and One Training Centre) within Mohammed bin Rashid’s projects – Government of Dubai. Additionally, she is the Chairman of KENZEL FACILITY MANAGEMENT within Mohammed bin Rashid’s projects – Government of Dubai. Dr. Sabah’s extensive experience and leadership in the medical industry make her a valuable asset to our DPDO organization.

Cindy Castano

Treasure - Board of Directors

Cindy Castano is the president of Alpha Management Group, Inc. (AMG), which is an organization that focuses on business development, management and documentary film production. She has 30 years’ experience in client relations, sales and business development and has been a licensed investment advisor. Prior to founding AMG, amongst several positions in sales/marketing, Cindy has worked in the investment/financial markets of USA, London, England and Geneva, Switzerland, specializing in high value, multi-million dollar accounts. Documentary film production is one of the primary elements of AMG’s business and is structured under AMG Media, a division of Alpha Management Group. Ms. Castano is currently acting as writer, editor, and producer for a documentary entitled “MY SLAVE, MY INFIDEL,” which is in production. The film focuses on the slave trade in Southern Sudan and has expanded filming as events continue to unfold Darfur, Sudan. AMG also has a documentary in negotiations which will focus specifically on the genocidal conflict in Darfur.

Dr. Suliman A. Giddo

President ,Board Member

Dr. Suliman A. Giddo is a highly accomplished expert with over twenty years of intensive and comprehensive experience in leadership, international relations, strategic planning, conflict resolution and disaster and emergency management; having successfully created strategic plans for governments and private institutions in the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. He is also a renowned academic and researcher at George Mason University, with a proven track record of excellence in teaching at American universities including the School of Business at Indiana, and serving in senior positions for several international organizations, including the prestigious American Red Cross, Management System International and Qatar Foundation. Dr. Giddo’s extensive experience includes serving as a consultant for the UA-UN joint mission. He also served as a board member for several institutions and organizations.

Dr.Giddo is the dynamic founder and president of Sub-Saharan University, which offers eight programs in diverse fields such as medicine and general surgery, nursing, medical lab, business administration, information technology, computer network, and banking and finance, with over 2000 enrolled students mostly from Internal Displaced Persons.

Dr. Giddo earned his Ph.D. in Peace Studies and Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University in the United States, where he demonstrated exceptional academic prowess. He also completed postgraduate studies in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University in New York, a Master of Science in Business Administration/Accounting from Strayer University in Virginia, where he was an outstanding alumni (2008), and post-graduate studies in Strategic Planning and Project Management from the prestigious Stanford University in California. Dr. Giddo obtained his B.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Khartoum.