Overview
Between May and September 2026, FSC supported 25 community initiatives in North Darfur with micro-grants worth USD 114,225.37 in total. All 25 grants were in the first micro-grant round. The initiatives worked in four localities: Kabkabiya (10 initiatives), El Fasher (7), Dar Al-Salam/Shangil Tobaya (6) and Kutum (2). Together they reached 43,280 people: 13,125 women, 12,360 girls, 8,440 men and 9,355 boys. Under Outcome 1 (HDP Nexus), 18 initiatives reached 41,355 people. Under Outcome 2 (Gender and Protection), 7 initiatives reached 1,925 people, most of them women and girls.
Girls are back in school.
In Shangil Tobaya, after the classrooms at the Girls' Basic School in the Southern Neighbourhood were rehabilitated, more than 40 girls per class who had stopped attending now come to school regularly. Before the rehabilitation, they were afraid the roof would fall and rainwater came into the rooms. Parents formed a committee to look after the classrooms so they do not fall apart again. In Al-Kuma, where Al-Farouq Primary School was damaged by an air strike, two classrooms were rehabilitated and residents formed a committee that is now encouraging parents to send their children back to school.
Women and girls are safer when grinding grain and fetching water.
In Shagra (El Fasher), women, girls and young people used to walk to Tawila, Korma and Kafoot to grind food grain and were beaten and robbed on the way. Since the community food grain mill was installed, they grind their food grain at the same area and no longer make these trips. In Sereif, Al-Serif Emergency Room repaired a hand pump and the community set up a water management committee. The repaired hand pump serves 23,000 people (7,880 women, 7,570 girls, 3,000 men and 4,550 boys), who now get water close to home, so women and children walk shorter distances and face fewer attacks and disputes.
Communities set up their own structures to manage local affairs.
In Shagra, youth, women and the Native Administration formed the Shagra Community Council for Peaceful Coexistence. It represents 9 villages (1,127 households) with one member from each village. The Council manages the food grain mill, settles local disputes, coordinates voluntary returns and chose Um Hijaleej as one central point for receiving aid, which has made distributions more orderly and reduced tension between communities.
Women are leading change on harmful practices.
In Kabkabiya, the rehabilitated literacy classroom in Al-Mawashi became a safe place where women and girls from Al-Mawashi and Midan Al-Kheil now run their own awareness sessions against female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. In Kutum, women who took part in a workshop on child marriage and FGM agreed to keep meeting every week in small groups to discuss these issues.
A rehabilitated classroom became a busy community centre.
Since August, the Multipurpose Community Centre in Al-Mawashi has hosted a kindergarten, first aid and home nursing courses, handicrafts, English classes and a Quranic school (Khalwa). Forty-two widows and mothers of orphans now make green fuel-efficient stoves there. This gives them some income, cuts the use of firewood and charcoal, and means fewer trips outside town to collect firewood, where women faced violence.
Basic needs were met for vulnerable families.
Food baskets reached displaced and host households in Kabkabiya, Shangil Tobaya, Kherban, Shagra and Jaldama. Mehrab Al-Sudan gave agricultural ploughs to 45 poor households, mostly female-headed. Qaderon supported 40 farming households with food, improved seeds and spraying pumps, set up two farmers' and herders' cooperatives and trained 150 people on mobile banking, e-commerce and small business. A three-day free medical camp in Sereif treated 1,380 people from displaced and host communities. Dignity kits helped women and girls meet their hygiene needs with dignity and, in Dar Al-Salam, helped girls stay in school.
Relations between groups improved.
Anti-hate speech sessions, community dialogues, sports matches and cultural events brought displaced people and host communities together. In Shangil Tobaya, Mama Africa's sports and cultural activities created safe spaces where IDPs and host community members met and talked. Participants in the mediation training showed a clear rise in their understanding of conflict resolution.
Who benefited
The main groups who benefited were displaced families, host communities, returnees, women and girls (including widows and female-headed households), youth, schoolchildren, farmers and pastoralists, community leaders and the 25 local initiatives themselves. Women and girls made up 25,485 of the 43,280 people reached (59%). The 156 initiative members (90 women and 66 men) also gained skills in proposal writing, reporting, financial management and outcome harvesting.
Who was left out
Because funds were limited, some poor households outside the target areas, and some families inside the target villages, could not be included (for example in Kharibaan villages). In Naba Al-Ataa's food distribution, local residents were not included. In Korma, Waki Ajmal faced pressure from groups who were not selected. Communities outside the project's operational areas were not reached, and several initiatives that applied could not be funded because of the limited number of grants, although some of them joined the information and training sessions.
Negative and unintended changes
Al-Nahda Initiative for Development lost SDG 4 million when unknown persons withdrew the money from the Bankak account of the member in charge. Members covered the loss from their own pockets and paid workers and traders, and reported the case to the Bank of Khartoum. The incident created mistrust and complaints among members and weakened team spirit, although the initiative is still working. On the positive side, the trust built through the Shagra food grain mill led the Shagra Community Council to recommend FSC to other organisations, and FSC later signed an agreement with UNICEF/WASH cluster to deliver hygiene kits to Shagra and Khartoum Jadeed.
