AYA IBRAHIM

Sudan– Sudan’s Northern State hosts a large number of internally displaced women, who fled the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, due to the conflict that erupted in mid-April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Aanab Vocational Training Center offers mango products manufacturing courses to women. The aim of the courses is to promote women’s economic empowerment in the state.

Women attending the courses learn how to make more than 15 natural, preservative-free mango products such as mango yogurt, dried mango slices and chips.

“We want to export these products to other countries,” said Shaza Awad Bahri, the director of the training center and the trainer of the mango products manufacturing courses. “More than 40 women have attended this course. The aim of the courses is to teach women how to make products from mango fruit. After completing the courses, women can become trainers.”

Mango is one of the major fruit crops in the Northern State, annually harvested in June. Before the civil war broke out in Sudan, there were several factories manufacturing mango drinks in the country; however, the outbreak of the civil war led to the closure of several factories in Khartoum. The Aanab Vocational Training Center decided to organize mango products manufacturing courses for women to promote women’s economic empowerment.

“I have learned that we can make many products from mango fruit,” said Zainab Othman, expressing her happiness to attend the course.

Since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan, many women have been in search of new ways to earn a living because many of them are the breadwinners of their families.

“We have benefited from this course, it is a successful course,” said Asia Hussein, another woman attending the course. “I thank the center for offering such courses to women. After completing the course, I will organize similar courses in my region.”

‘I will implement everything I have learned’

“The training course helped me gain a lot of knowledge and how to take advantage of the mango season,” Fatima Al-Hajj told NuJINHA. “I will implement everything I have learned. I will keep making mango products.”