SFPA (Atbara Branch) Deserves Appreciation

By: Muawad Mustafa Rashid

Since the eruption of war on 15April 2024, millions of Greater Khartoum citizens fled the area heading towards safe havens in neighboring states.
River Nile State was one of those safe havens.

In a rapid response to the influx of the families in Atbara, Sudan Family Planning Association (SFPA) worked out an emergency plan to provide the primary health care through mobilizing its mobile clinics and medical cadres targeting the rural areas in particular aiming at providing those who fled the war with the required medical checkup, laboratories, services, free medicine along with launching comprehensive awareness programmes and phycological services.

Within our endeavors to shed light on the noble mission of the SFPA (Atbara Branch), we paid a cordial visit to its head office in Atbara where we were received warmly by Mrs. Kawthar Mohammed Ibrahim who said, among other details, that the SFPA is a voluntary nonprofit association which was established on the national level in 1965 with the purpose of reducing mortality rates. SFPA in River Nile State was established in 1994.
Since then the SFPA in River Nile State is working tirelessly in family planning through integrated health care to pregnants and dealing with pregnancy emergencies, besides fighting the FGM and shield marriages.

The SFPA in River Nile State (Atbara Branch) is also working in women empowerment programmes.

To achieve its goals the SFPA adapted the following methods:

– Providing primary health care via awareness and training.
– Opening health centers in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
– Providing social services via training courses to rural midwives.
-Integrated family health center (established in 2002).
– Women Integrated Sexual Health (, WISH) which targets the poor, disabled and youth.

From the Editor:

As an eyewitness to the activities of the SFPA (Atbara Branch), I really recognized that all the staff members and the team led by Mrs. Kawthar are utilizing the available facilities to the maximum, but they are in bad need to be equipped with the following to make their mission a success:
– Small car for supervion.
– A minibus to transport the staff members.
– Increasing the share of the budget to implement more activities and programmes.
– Availing more training courses.
– providing medicines and more consumable materials for the laboratory.
– Hormones checking apparatus.
– Heart apparatus.

We hereby call on all the concerned international organizations, related departments in the diplomatic corps to take the necessary actions to provide the SFPA with the above mentioned requirements.
We know that the concerned international organizations can do it, as it is recognized the rapid response and practices to such noble missions.
God bless Sudan and its people.