Reflecting on 2023 and looking ahead
Made with Adobe Firefly. (Operation Broken Silence)
Friends and partners,
The last 12 months represent the most difficult time in Sudan’s modern history, but they’re also a testament to the unwavering determination of our Sudanese partners and dedication of our community. I am filled with gratitude as I meditate on what we accomplished together:
Childhood Education in Yida Refugee Camp. Attendance at Endure Primary School in Yida Refugee Camp climbed from almost 500 students daily to 720 by year’s end. Daily attendance at Renewal Secondary also surged nearly 70% to 437 students. And a record 43 out of the 45 students who took the Grade 8 national exam passed and are now enrolled at Renewal Secondary! A perfect score is 400 points and the five top-performing students were Yesmin Khamis Hassan (368.2), Makabula Peter Abdu (354.3), Amin Luke Nadir (353.4), Emmanuel Abdu Abdurahaman (352.5), and Sabri Andraws Junub (350). Congratulations!
Healthcare in the Nuba Mountains. The team at Mother of Mercy Hospital provided medical care to 72,000 people. This includes performing more than 2,200 surgeries and delivering 720 babies while supporting maternal recovery. The new 80-bed pediatric ward also opened and the staff doubled the number of community clinics they oversee from six to twelve. The dormitory for the hospital’s St. Bakhita Health Sciences Training Institute is now built and a second class of students (30 midwives) are already being trained.
Escape support and relief in southern Darfur. A seven-person team of Sudanese heroes helped roughly 1,900 refugees navigate targeted violence in Darfur, cross safely into South Sudan, and provided a limited amount of food and other basic necessities to those most in need. Many people who made contact with our rudimentary escape network said this was the only source of hope and help they had found since the war began in April. This brave operation was made possible in part by the wonderful generosity of our donors, who paid for fuel, food, and other materials that were used to help people find safe haven.
This is just a snapshot of what you helped our Sudanese partners accomplish in 2023. None of this would have been possible without your generous partnership! Thank you.
A Year Of Navigating Challenges
For those of you who read this annual letter, you know we don’t shy away from sharing areas that we found challenging. Despite the above wins, 2023 marked another difficult year for our mission.
The new war between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) imposed a number of security and resource challenges on all of our Sudanese partners. Even in areas where our work was not impacted directly by regime violence, prices on everything from pencils to basic medical supplies to fuel have skyrocketed.
Many of the Sudanese heroes we support did more with less as the year progressed and their purchasing power declined. Understandably, there was and is a lot of frustration at the situation imposed on them by Sudan’s now fractured regime. Much of the energy from this frustration and anger was redirected back into the work though and played an important role in saving and changing so many lives.
Outside of Sudan, the fundraising hurdles we’ve faced since 2020 remained entrenched. Three years of overblown fears of a major recession in the United States yet again failed to pan out, but this fear kept in place the overarching climate of wariness toward generosity. Many globally-minded donors remained focused on Ukraine and now the Israel/Palestine crisis. As Sudan is not in the news, the feedback we’ve received from a lot of potential supporters is that they don’t see Sudan as the gravest crisis in the world, despite all the data showing that it is. We did find some relief in inflation easing in the United States, leading to some of our longer-term supporters raising their level of generosity. This was an encouraging sign that this season we’ve been in will pass one day, even if we are unsure when.
Similar to our Sudanese partners, we faced these challenges head on as best we could. We more than tripled our outreach to potential new supporters. Membership in The Renewal monthly giving program was stable and grew slightly. We overhauled large portions of our website and messaging, which led to a slight uptick in the number of small dollar donations and new faces joining our movement. After a lot of hard work, our annual 5K finally returned to pre-pandemic fundraising levels and is poised for further growth.
Photo: Children playing after school in Yida Refugee Camp. (Operation Broken Silence)
Looking Ahead To 2024
Your collective determination has inspired us to continue adapting as we head into the new year. The war in Sudan will keep evolving, but there are no indications the violence will cease. There are also no signs that the fundraising hurdles we face will ease on their own. Based on what we learned this year, in 2024 we’ll navigate these challenges with three key principles in mind:
1. Educate, educate, educate. There has always been a sizable gap between the plight of the Sudanese people and what the American public knows. 2023 showed us that gap has widened to a catastrophic point. Few people know about events unfolding in Sudan and even fewer know enough to speak authoritatively about the crisis. This is one of the main reasons why the the Sudanese people have received scant attention. It also means we’re having to spend weeks, sometimes months, educating potential supporters before they’ll even consider getting involved.
In early 2024, we’ll be doing our part to help overcome this challenge by rolling out more robust educational resources. And throughout the year we’ll build out additional tools that anyone can use to help make some noise about Sudan.
2. Become more firmly rooted in the basics. We’ll stay focused on serving our Sudanese partners and supporters to the best of our ability one week and one month at a time. You’ll notice more communication from us in 2024 along with easier and more direct ways to help.
3. Go big on what works. In a similar vein, after three years of throwing new ideas at the wall to see what sticks, we now have a pretty good idea of what helps move our mission forward and what doesn’t. For example, we saw a lot of signs this year that our annual 5K can be a growth engine for our movement and Sudanese partners, so we’ll be leaning much harder into that event. The same with our monthly giving family, The Renewal. We’re a small nonprofit with limited resources, so pooling what we have into what works will be critical for our Sudanese partners and all of you in 2024.
As we stand on the cusp of a new year and the hope that comes with it, will you make one final gift to Operation Broken Silence?
$1,000 - Fully funds one classroom at Endure Primary School in Yida Refugee Camp for half a semester.
$500 - Delivers food to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled to South Sudan.
$250 - Provides a daily breakfast to 10 children for an entire month in Adré refugee camp, where many Darfuri genocide survivors now live.
$100 - Supports the monthly work of a sexual assault counselor in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan.
$50 - Helps repair classrooms in Yida damaged by seasonal rains and provide for general maintenance.
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
Other Ways To Give
Checks - Personal checks and grants from DAFs can be make payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
Stocks and Mutual Funds - Use this giving form to donate stock. To give from a mutual fund, download our Investment Fund Transfer Form and follow the instructions. Please note that all stock and mutual fund donations are nonrefundable.
Cryptocurrency - Use this giving form to donate crypto. Please note that all crypto donations are nonrefundable.
Fundraise - Start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give! These last few days of the year are the perfect time to fundraise.
Give Monthly - The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting Sudanese heroes. Sign up here.
As we embark on a new year together, let us carry the lessons of 2023 with us and move forward with the same hope and determination our Sudanese partners have.
Thank you for standing with our friends in Sudan this year. On behalf of them, I wish you a joyous holiday season and a healthy New Year.
Onward,
Mark C. Hackett
Executive Director
