Bridge of Hope- Charity Profile

“Street kids are like cream,” says New Zealand native Barbara Gouldsbury. “You stir it and eventually it rises to the top.”



Angelo- Before and after life at Bridge of Hope

That’s just what Gouldsbury, a former nurse, has set out to do by founding Bridge of Hope on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.


Bridge of Hope is a non-profit organization aimed at sheltering and rehabilitating some of Khartoum’s most endangered street children by providing them with food, medical care, education and, critically, self-discipline.

The pull of street life is a reality for tens of thousands of young children in Sudan who hail from impoverished families, largely from the nation’s south and the embattled Darfur region. Many children have fled homes and families that simply cannot provide for them, while others have been orphaned.

On the streets, they survive by begging for food and money or taking day jobs. Much of what they earn is spent on tubes of cheap yellow glue which the children ingest. Unaware of the permanent damage that may result, the children say glue prevents hunger and brings a pleasing high that allows them, for a few hours, to escape the misery of street life.

At Bridge of Hope, Goldsbury and a Sudanese staff work to rehabilitate street boys by providing them with essential services they lack.

But food and shelter are not enough for children and the organization gives the boys something even more rare—unconditional support and the love of a tight-knit family.

Bridge of Hope’s residential home houses 35 former street boys who range in age from 4 to 20 years. The home aims to provide a renewed sense of self-esteem and self-discipline. All the boys who live at Bridge of Hope are required to go to school, help cook dinner and keep their clothes clean. For fun, the boys enjoy reading books, playing football and dancing in Sudan’s traditional Nubian style.

At a near-by drop in center between 50 and 100 street children turn up daily to utilize washing facilities and have a good meal.

At Bridge of Hope’s learning center they practice reading, writing and arithmetic, while at a vocational center the boys learn a trade. Although the learning center is not a registered school, the curriculum follows Sudan’s national curriculum but also includes music, drama, art and sport.

The programs are run by Sudanese employees as well as several volunteers from Sudan and abroad.

The boys who benefit from Bridge of Hope’s programs are happy, healthy and, on some occasions mischievous—just like any other boys their age.
Bridge of Hope is a non-profit organization aimed at sheltering and rehabilitating some of Khartoum’s most endangered street children by providing them with food, medical care, education and, critically, self-discipline.

Street kids- Life on the Streets

Sudanese are known for a pleasant hospitality that bridges both Arab and African cultures; and many are sympathetic to the tens of thousands of homeless, impoverished children who roam the streets of the capital city. But in a nation scarred by decades of conflict, many have become inured to the sight of young children begging for food and money.

The majority of Sudanese street children are of southern descent. More than 2 million southern Sudanese settled in and around the nation’s capital during the nation’s twenty-one year civil war between north and south Sudan.
The majority of southern Sudanese live in poverty in squalid camps on the outskirts of Khartoum.

An investment boom has prompted the city to polish its image, and as the price of land has skyrocketed, many southerners have been forcibly relocated into remote, windswept areas outside of the capital—a practice condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups. These new camps lack even the most basic services, including water and schools.

Southern Sudanese also charge that they face racial discrimination when applying for jobs, condemning thousands to lives of poverty. Southerners typically work as day laborers or cleaners—positions that pay very little, particularly in families where it is not uncommon to have three or more children.

Traumatized by war and underemployed or unable to find work, some southern women simply cannot care for their children. Northern children are largely protected by intricate family networks that see a child taken in my relatives if his or her parents are unable to provide care. Furthermore, growing populations of children who have fled the war-torn Darfur region also make their homes on the street.

The life of a street child in Khartoum is unpleasant. Market vendors are largely unsympathetic to the hundreds of children who sleep and beg in marketplaces. Food, water and medical attention are hard to come by—even for the desperately ill. A lack of social programs means thousands of children simply slip through the cracks. Shelters are a rarity and most street children are unable to attend even government schools which charge small admissions fees.

Addiction, though, is the children’s greatest challenge. Street children—mainly boys—ingest glue into their mouths in order to stave off hunger and fear. They buy glue with money they have earned doing odd jobs or begging, leading many people to refuse to give street kids any money at all. Side effects of glue may include irate or erratic behaviour and the practice of ingesting glue can cause permanent damage to the brain.

Despite the challenges street children face, visitors are generally surprised by their almost constant cheer.

The few centers that work directly with street children say they are resilient and predict bright futures ahead for those who escape the pull of street life.

Sudan- Country Profile

Sudan is a sprawling nation of more than 40 million people, which blends rich Arab and African cultures—at times uncomfortably. Sudanese President Omer Al Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup and the nation is ruled by a strict Islamic code of law known as Shari’a. At present, Sudan boasts one of the ten fastest growing economies in the world; and the capital city Khartoum is experiencing an economic boom spurred by investment in the nation’s oil reserves.

Despite a thriving economic sector Sudan’s western Darfur region remains wracked by violent conflict, and a 2005 peace agreement that ended twenty-one years of civil war between north and south Sudan has faced its own setbacks in recent months.

The nation has a long history of ethnic strife. After gaining independence from colonial England in 1956, Sudan entered five decades of civil unrest, which exploded into war in 1983 between the nation’s Muslim Arab north and African south which is primarily Christian and animist.

The war, fought in the southern theatre, was a struggle over religion and resources.
Southern rebels formed the powerful Sudan’ People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The SPLM/A fought a government plat to forcibly Islamicize the south and charged northern foes with attempting to steal the south’s vast, untapped oil reserves.

In January 2005 the SPLM/A and the government of Sudan inked a peace accord, ending the twenty-one war.

Southern Sudan was granted an autonomous government and protocols were signed on wealth-sharing—with particular attention paid to southern oil reserves. As part of the deal southern Sudanese will vote in a 2011 referendum on whether to remain united with the north or secede and form their own nation.

More than 2 million southern Sudanese died during the prolonged conflict, while some 4 million others fled the south, settling in Khartoum and overseas.

As the north/south conflict came to a close, a separate ethnic conflict rent Sudan’s western Darfur region. A vast, remote area the size of France, Darfur has long been marred by conflicts over land and water between nomadic Arab tribes and African farmers. Unlike the north/south war, racial distinctions are often unclear in Darfur and all parties to the conflict practice Islam, but traditional rivalries run deep.

In February 2003, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army attacked government positions in Darfur, complaining that the region remained undeveloped due to neglect from Sudan’s government.

Khartoum is charged with exploiting the region’s deep inter-ethnic tensions by providing arms to Arab tribes, who formed armed militias and concentrated savage attacks on civilian encampments.
These militias, known as janjaweed, continue to move with impunity, raping, looting and killing at will.

A May 5th peace agreement brokered by the African Union in Abuja, Nigeria was hailed by the international community as Darfur’s best bet toward ending the conflict.

But only one faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by 38-year-old former schoolteacher Minni Minnawi signed on to the deal. Other rebel factions refused to sign on to the agreement, complaining that the deal does not meet their basic demands of wealth and power sharing.\

Minnawi rose to the post of senior advisor to President Omer Al Bashir, but the widely lauded agreement faltered as holdout rebels and the government continued to battle it out in Darfur, with civilians again caught in the crossfire.

As the eyes of the international community turned to Darfur, western nations in particular have increasingly demanded United Nations intervention in the embattled region. Sudan has refused a UN presence, instead affirming its faith in the 7,000 member African Union force, which has struggled with a lack of funding and a weak mandate.

More than 2.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting, in Darfur and eastern Chad. And while the Sudanese government sets the death toll at about 9,000 outside observers including the World Health Organization say more than 200,000 people have died.

The United States has labeled the conflict “genocide,” though the United Nations has restricted its definition to the less severe “ethnic cleansing.”
Observers fear that the conflict, which has spread into neighboring Chad, will engulf the entire region.