08/05/2023
Khartoum, Sudan, my beloved home from 2018 - 2020 is now a war zone in which two warlords fuelled by warmongers are fighting each other with bullets, bombs and missiles, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands of innately peaceful people.
https://othmusiccollective.bandcamp.com/track/home-a-song-for-sudan
‘Home, a song for Sudan’ is a song I released as a call to action to help people fleeing violence in Khartoum get to safety and to enable the provision of online and onsite mental health support for displaced youth and families.
From 2018 - 2020 I was a school teacher and wellbeing volunteer at Khartoum International Community School, during which time I initiated Design For Change (DFC) Sudan (dfcworld.org/Sudan) to empower youth leadership.
The onslaught of daily hardship in Sudan broke my heart open. Political oppression. Environmental degradation. Poverty. R**e of natural resources by despots and international ‘investors.’ Roads that become rivers when it rains. Shops with intermittent supplies. Petrol queues that people sit in for hours. Power cuts. Rising costs of bread. Military rule. Yet in all my time in Sudan, I did not meet a single violent Sudanese person. Instead, the Sudanese are the most peaceful and resilient people who are holding on to hope for a peaceful, democratic, prosperous Sudan to emerge from this turmoil.
After weeks of exposure to unprecedented violence that has been destroying their city and feeling rising fear as bombs and missiles got closer to their homes, every single one of my former colleagues and students have been displaced. My friends fled their homes with the clothes on their backs and with what their arms could hold. Some made it out with the sound of bombs still echoing and some still need help to get to safety.
I wrote ‘Home, a song for Sudan’ in 2019 after the Khartoum massacre of 118 civilians and the r**e of 70 unarmed peaceful protestors. It was released on Bandcamp for song sales and donations to our fundraising campaign on Givengain to be used to:
- Evacuate members of our DFC Sudan community
- Support others who I know of (through my friends) to get to safety
- Provide mental health activities for displaced people to aide the trauma release, self-compassion and healing needed when rebuilding their lives
Two of our DFC Sudan freelancers who fled Khartoum need support. Ayman Mohammed is a freelance videographer/graphic designer stuck in a village en-route to Ethiopia and Marina George is a teacher rebuilding her life in Cairo. They have directly empowered Sudanese youth from 2019 - 2021 to lead community projects addressing environmental and social issues. My friends at my former school know of others who need help to get to safety. Ayman and Marina, while needing to address personal difficulty, are both eager to work to offer online and onsite mental health support for displaced youth and families
‘Home, a song for Sudan’ is a call to action. The song can be bought on Bandcamp for £2 OR if you can donate more than £2, please send these through Givengain (www.givengain.com/cc/help-sudanese-youth-and-families-displaced-by-current-war/). All proceeds (less platform transaction fees) go directly to support our DFC Sudan (and wider) community get to safety and to provide mental health support for displaced youth and families.
Home, a song for Sudan is a call to action to care and love and just be kind and right now - to think of our Sudanese brothers and sisters who need our help.
🙏🏼
Juanita
