Hanan’s Seed Grant: Supporting Sudanese Women
“The grant from Planet Women really helped me stay connected to the farmers and my people in Sudan. After leaving everything behind, I could still try to impact others.”
Hanan had recently started attending the Women’s Leadership Circle (WLC) last year when conflict broke out in Sudan. Soon, she was forced to flee the country. She and her two children, both university students, left with nothing but an 8-kilogram bag of important papers and food. Since then, they have been living in Germany. For nearly a year after arriving, Hanan tried to secure an apartment for her family. Now that they have housing, her son and daughter are trying to find a path forward with their schooling, finding they must start over in the German university system. Hanan continues to look for a job.
Despite navigating this incredibly difficult and devastating situation, Hanan continues to look for ways to make a positive impact on women and nature back home. Hanan keeps in touch daily with family and friends who remain in Sudan, aware of the significant challenges people are facing: war, mass displacement, lack of food and water. She notes that climate change has been a reality in Sudan for a long time, with the fluctuation of the rainy season resulting in unstable harvests for farmers. Since people are desperate to survive day to day, more trees are being cut down as well.
The power of women supporting one another
Hanan Elhadi. © Hanan Elhadi.
Hanan’s lifelong love of nature led her to becoming an accomplished agricultural leader with deep knowledge around organic farming and nursery management. After earning her master’s and PhD in Germany, she returned to her hometown in Sudan to make a positive impact on her community and the environment. Hanan has a special passion for helping women, saying, “From the beginning I could see that women are strong and can do anything and everything to support themselves, their children, and the world. But they need support.”
In addition to her scientific work at Africorp International and raising two children, Hanan started two initiatives: One Million Fruit Trees Initiative, which planted thousands of trees at colleges and universities; and Women for the Planet, which supports female nursery owners in distributing and marketing their products.
With funding and support from friends and family, Hanan has contributed to restoring thousands of hectares of land and trained more than 15,000 women in growing seedlings for trees, managing organic production and certification, and marketing their products.
She says, “Recently we applied for a plot of land to make a nursery for research to help women manage their nursery scientifically. Unfortunately, [with] the outbreak of war in Sudan I was forced to move to Germany to leave my home, land, resources behind me.”
After landing in Germany, Hanan found community through virtual meetings with her fellow WLC members. These women leaders are also involved with reforestation across Africa and they have been willing to share their support and wisdom with one another. She says, “It was a really difficult time and I needed someone to talk to because I lost everything and left my family and relatives there. I’m very happy I continued connecting with these women so I can tell someone my story, what happened to me, and find support.”
Planet Women seed grants flexibly respond to community needs
Hanan has used her seed grant from Planet Women to deliver virtual trainings to farmers and nursery owners in Sudan from Germany. She explains, “I was trying to connect with the farmers there doing organic production and certification and coach them to continue producing.” However, after connecting with the women, plans changed. “Unfortunately, I found the women without water. So, I have to support the women to get water. I bought a donkey and small cart to bring the water from far away so every day six women can have drinking water.”
Hanan explains, “When I was in Sudan, I was trying to help a village to dig wells or water catchment to provide drinking water. But sometimes it’s not working good and especially during this war no one can repair the water systems. So, I bought this donkey and cart for drinking water and to water the fruit trees a small amount.”
Hanan used the rest of her seed grant to get basic home office equipment, such as a webcam and a printer, so she can continue supporting farmers and other women back home in Sudan.
Talking to Hanan, her deep intelligence and care for others is clear. When she sees a problem, she works to implement a solution. When asked what she would do with more resources and support, she said she would want to keep building on her two initiatives—even combining them so that nursery owners can provide the seedlings to plant trees at schools and universities. She also has a pilot project that uses a solar-powered refrigerator to hold antidote serum for snake and scorpion bites, potentially saving the lives of people living in villages far away from hospitals. She hopes to scale this project to more communities in Sudan someday.
What drives Hanan to be such a relentless conservation leader even during so much hardship? She says, “Without the support from my family and community, I could not be here in Germany. I’m a woman from Africa and a small town, but I had the chance to study abroad. Because of the help of my family, I continued my studying and now I have my PhD, so why not support others?”
Hanan is an inspiration! We are grateful she’s part of the Planet Women community.