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Meet the Current Board of
Directors of Darfur Rehabilitation Project
DRP's Board
of Directors consists mainly of Darfurians, many with first-hand
knowledge of the genocide taking place in their homeland. All
members of the Board are skilled in conflict resolution having
met with and studied the teachings of Professor Roger Fischer
(author of "Getting to Yes") at Harvard Law School. Board
members are actively engaged in all facets of DRP's work
including The Darfur-Darfur Dialogues, the DRP Victims'
Project, and the Speaker's Bureau. DRP is co-founder of NJ Responds to the Crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Most recently, DRP joined with 24 Hours for Darfur to embark upon "Darfurian Voices", a three year, six month social studies survey which included traveling to
all of the Darfurian refugee camps in the region of Chad, Africa. "Darfurian Voices" documents Darfurian refugees' views on issues of Peace, Justice and Reconciliation.
Blanche Foster- Acting Executive Director
Blanche Foster brings
management experience from the consumer products
industry to her role as Executive Director of DRP. She was also
the founder/editor of The Chariot, a music industry
newsletter, circulated worldwide. A life-long community
activist, Ms. Foster has held positions that brought
about long-term positive change: Included is her tenure
as the Board President of the Interfaith Hospitality
Network of Essex County, a program that helps the
homeless and as Community Outreach Coordinator for the
United Nations Assn.-NJ, in its Global Economy Project
with Rutgers University. She has received the United
Nations Millennium Development Goal: "Women’s Rights and
Empowerment" award, proclamations by the City of Newark, NJ in conjunction with the African Commission, also with the Black Nurses of Newark, NJ. Ms. Foster considers herself
privileged to use her multifaceted skills set in service
of the Darfurians as they attempt to bring an end to
their plight in Darfur while seeking reconciliation in
all of Sudan.
Abdelbagy Abushanab - President DRP
Born and brought
up in Northern Darfur, Sudan,
Mr. Abushanab has been an advocate for social
equality and justice for the last thirty years as the
means by which to bring about peace in his homeland.
While in Sudan, he was a hotel manager and Vice Chairman
of the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance. Mr. Abushanab
was forced to flee Sudan when the political atmosphere
took a turn away from the democratically-elected
government. He and five of the Darfurian Board Members
co-founded Darfur Rehabilitation Project. Mr. Abushanab,
now a citizen of the United States, has played a key
role in heightening public awareness of the Darfur
crisis through speaking engagements across the country
and in discussions with members of the U.S. Congress,
affiliates of the United Nations, with U.S. officials
and those of the Government of Sudan. He has
participated in many panel discussions with well-known
advocates for the Darfur cause. Even as a young man, Mr.
Abushanab believed that an active engagement for peace
can only be achieved by maintaining the unity and
stability of Sudan; through engagement in vigorous
negotiations rather than by seeking military solutions.
Mr. Abushanab has devoted his life’s work to this goal. Mr. Abushanab is a major participant in "Darfurian Voices".
Elnour Adam
Mr. Adam is a Darfurian
peace activist born and raised in Habilah, western
Darfur. He is a founder of Sudan Peace Advocates Network
(SPAN) in the United States, working towards a peaceful
resolution to the conflict in his homeland. Mr. Adam
has a degree in Architecture from the Zagazic University
in Egypt and is currently a Superintendent with Gilbane
Construction Company working on the U.S. Capitol Visitor
Center construction project.Click here to read Elnour Adam : A
voice from Darfur, an interview with Mr. Adam conducted by Jim Wallis of Beliefnet &
Soujourners. Mr. Adam is also a major participant in "Darfurian Voices".
Abdelkerim Bachar - New Board Member
Information Forthcoming.
Donald Conway - New Board Member
Information Forthcoming.
Fatima M. Haroun
Fatima M. Haroun is
one of the leading advocates on behalf of the people of
Darfur. She is a native of Jebel Marra, a beautiful area
of Western Darfur that has been destroyed by the
Janjaweed militias in recent years. A graduate of
Khartoum University she has an extensive background in
rural development in her homeland. Prior to the current
genocide she helped establish women's training centers
that taught rural women handicrafts and marketing skills
as well as providing health and literacy education. In
addition to her work with DRP,
she currently is working with Southern Sudanese Women on
reconciliation following the long war in Southern Sudan
and is helping form an organization that speaks for
Sudanese women in general. Ms. Haroun is a social worker
for the city's department of human Services in
Philadelphia. As part of her Darfur advocacy she has
testified at U.S. congressional hearings, been a
featured speaker at numerous demonstrations and rallies
and has given many TV and newspaper interviews. To read Ms. Haroun's response to the Jan
'07 State of the Union address click here.
Mohamed-Elgadi - New Board Member
Information Forthcoming.
Mohamed-ElMukhtar Abdallla Hassan - Treasurer
Mohamed-ElMukhtar Abdallla
Hassan was born in Um Kadadda, eastern
Darfur, Sudan. He earned his BS in Electronics &
Electrical Engineering from Menufia University, Egypt in
1981. Mr. Mukhtar worked as a telecommunication engineer
in Sudan’s Telecommunications Corporation from 1981 to
1983 and later served in the Sudanese Airforce as an
Avionics Engineer from 1983 to 1991. When the government
of Omer Elbashir came into power in 1989, many Sudanese
civil servants were forced to quit their jobs. Mr.
Mukhtar was forced from his position in 1991 joining the
private sector to work as an electronics engineer in the
Darfur region. In 1998, Mr. Mukhtar came to the US and
worked for Corvis Corporation in Maryland. Mr. Mukhtar
is a long-time Darfur activist who established the
Association of Darfurian People in Washington DC before
joining the Board of Directors of the DRP.
Osman Jamis
Osman Jamis was born
in Damlin, east Sudan. His family is originally from
Darfur and returned there during his childhood. He
attended the International University of African Law
where he earned a docotorate in law. Mr. Jamis became a
human rights activist, championing the causes of the
Darfurian people while working in the law firm of Assia
Altaib. The Khartoum government arrested him for his
activities, primarily because he spoke out for women’s
rights and was a member of the Democratic Alliance
Party. Upon his release he escaped from Sudan to Chad
and then to the United States where he is a current
resident. Mr. Jamis continues to be a human rights
activist and worked with the Darfur People’s Association
in Brooklyn, NY and later became a co-founder and vice
president of DRP.
Khalid Kodi - Secretary
Award-winning Khalid Kodi is a
Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Painter and Sculptor with
an international reputation. Kodi’s work is well
respected in every genre he chooses as a means of
expression, including installations which are sometimes
startling but clearly communicate the horror of the
on-going tragedy in his homeland, Sudan. His art is
often political; yet, hopeful, as he records the mundane
moments when we may simply enjoy each other’s company
despite the cruelties that would force us to live in
fear. Still, Kodi forces us to consider the alternatives
to that which is serene. He says, “By not looking, we
abandon the child, the man, the woman and indeed, the
nation. It’s like the Nazi’s in the 30’s and 40’s;
people knew what was going on but they didn’t speak out.
By being quiet, they’re contributing to genocide, and I
have no problem calling it that.”
Hisham Easa Osman, M.D. - New Board Member
Information Forthcoming.
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