Almanar Voluntary Organization

Overview

Almanar is a women’s non-governmental, non-profit organization and was established in 1991 to reverse the tide of deterioration of the overall socio-economic situation, and the basic rights of women in particular. The main target groups were women of the rapidly growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who were trying to survive in makeshift camps and squatter areas in and around Greater Khartoum. The rise of IDP’s was directly related to the civil war going on in the south, as more and more families fled from the fighting in order to survive. Today, Almanar continues to work in these IDP sites in the greater Khartoum area and has expanded its scope of influence to south Kurdofan state.

Almanar’s humanitarian activities target armed conflict and natural disasters victims, displaced peoples, refugees and rural women, men, youth and children. Almanar has a remarkable experience in project implementation in Khartoum and South and West Kordofan states. The former interventions have covered skills training for groups of women in the IDP sites in Khartoum state, as well as women released from Omdurman Women’s Prison. On completion of the training program, Almanar provides these groups with loans to start their small income generation activities (IGAs).