Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Inc
2008 Board of Directors
Meet the Current Board of Directors of Darfur Rehabilitation Project
DRP's board of directors consists of mainly 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 Dialogue, the DRP Victims' Project and the Speaker's Bureau.
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. 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.
Barcai Mohamed Abdel-karim
Mr. Abdel-karim received his first degree in International Economics from Kiev State University in the former Soviet Union. Mr. Abdel-karim is a specialist in multilateral diplomacy and the role of international organizations having received his M.A. in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University. He has been a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. One of the founders of DRP, Mr. Abdel-karim headed a DRP fact-finding mission to the IDP camps in eastern Chad in July, 2005. Currently residing in Sudan, Mr. Abdel-karim provides frequent updates that are invaluable to DRP’s work. He is a strong believer in promoting dialogue among Darfurians and an advocate of democratic governance, social justice and human rights.
Ghada Abdelmoumin
Ghada Abdelmoumin was born in Khartoum, Sudan but her family is originally from eastern Darfur. She is involved in a community service initiative aimed at servicing the Sudanese Diaspora in the Washington, DC area where she currently resides. Through her work with the Sudanese community and DRP she promotes and advocates for Sudan and a peaceful means to end the current conflict in the Darfur region. She holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, MS in Computer Science and is currently working toward her PhD in Information Security and Assurance at George Mason University.
Abdelbagy Abushanab
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 past president of DRP.
Ishag Ahmed - Treasurer
Mr. Ahmed was born in Nyala, Darfur in 1953 and studied chemistry and math at the University of Khartoum. He taught science in Saudi Arabia for 6 years before returning to Sudan briefly at the end of 1983. Mr. Ahmed immigrated to the U.S. in 1984 to pursue a graduate degree in chemistry from Rutgers University. He currently works as an EMT technician and teaches CPR and medical transportation part time. Mr. Ahmed was the first president of DRP beginning in 2004.
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. Elnour 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. Elnour conducted by Jim Wallis of Beliefnet & Soujourners.
Omer Elsharif
Omer Elsharif is the son of a former Sudanese Supreme Court Judge. He spent his childhood in Darfur and lived in Sudan until his father was driven out of public office by the Khartoum government. In 1989, Mr. Elsharif graduated from the Omdurman Ahlia University – SUDAN, School of Business Administration in Sudan. In 1999, he immigrated to the United States as a political refugee and was granted asylum. Since that time, Mr. Elsharif has been an active member of the Sudanese community, particularly in the state of New Jersey where he resides. His volunteering efforts include providing aid to New Jersey’s Sudanese refugees as well as Sudanese victims of human trafficking focusing mainly on resettlement assistance programs. Mr. Elsharif is the founder of Peacebuilder, a Sudanese based volunteer group lending support to the Sudanese community in the U.S. His socio-political experience also includes working for the Saudi Consulate in Dubai, U.A.E. He is currently studying for his Master of Science degree in Public Policy. He is the newest board member of the Darfur Rehabilitation Project, where his role entails taking on the organization’s Community Foundation Initiatives (CFI). Mr. Elsharif is committed to justice, equality and the fair administration of the law.
Fatima M. Haroun - President DRP
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. Ms. Haroun is the current president of Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Inc.
To read Ms. Haroun's response to the Jan '07 State of the Union address click
here.
Mohamed-ElMukhtar Abdallla Hassan
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 Jami
Osman Jami 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. Jami 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. Jami 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.
Adel Khamis
Adel Khamis’ family was originally from Darfur. Born in east Sudan in the town of El Gdarif, he was primarily educated in el Gdarif. Mr. Khamis studied business administration. He attended the DeVry Institute of Technology here in the United States where he studied electronic technology.
Mr. Khamis lived in Saudi Arabia where he worked as an accountant and as a room division manager at a local hotel. He won the lottery--a yearly application process offered by the United States--to come to the U.S. Once in the U.S., Mr. Khamis opened an import/export company. He is an American citizen yet still looks for his family in Darfur and stays connected to his homeland.
Mr. Khamis became an activist fighting for equality and human rights years before the current Darfur genocide began because he saw problems emerging in his homeland.
Khalid Kodi
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.”
Yahya Mohammad Osman - Vice President
Yahya Osman, a Darfurian, was born January 1968, in Algadaref, Sudan, He studied Political Science at the Nassar University in Tripoli, Lybia (1988-1992).
Mr. Osman worked as an advertising representative for Om Alkram Charities in El Fashir, Darfur, as a manager for an International Group and was a partner of the Almumtaz Export Import Company. Mr. Osman then became Assistant for the Information Minister of Darfur, Sudan.
Mr. Osman’s human rights activities began in 1997, and continue until this day. When in Sudan, he was a member of the Umma Party but relinquished his membership when he came to the opinion that the Party did not build a strong opposition to the current regime.
When he arrived in the United States, Mr. Osman became founder and Foreign Affairs Secretary for the Darfur Peoples Association, a Brooklyn-based organization, and is a founder of Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Inc.
Meet the Current Advisory Board of Darfur Rehabilitation Project
Barkley Calkins
Mr. Calkins is the Director of the Nonprofit Sector Resource Institute, a funded arm of Seton Hall University’s Center for Public Service. Prior to coming to Seton Hall, Mr. Calkins had a distinguished 25-year career with J.P. Morgan & Company in both New York and London. He is a former Director of the New Jersey program for the National Executive Service Corps, a non-profit consulting organization that uses experienced executives as consultants to non-profits. Mr. Calkins was a key advocate for the decision by the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to adopt a Sudan divestment policy in 2006.
Jerry Ehrlich, M.D.
Jerry Ehrlich, a pediatrician from Cherry Hill, NJ, who had served previously with Doctors Without Borders on three missions to Sri Lanka, was inspired to volunteer again in one of Darfur's largest IDP camps after reading about the genocide in the news. He headed to Darfur in the summer of 2004, ill-prepared for the atrocities that would face him. Erlich saw up to 200 patients a day, mainly women, children and the elderly, who were dying from malnutrition and disease. Beyond his work as a healer, Erlich was able to help document the genocide by providing children in the camps with paper and crayons they used to make drawings and smuggling them out of the camps. Over 150 of these children's drawings show disturbing images of raids on villages by the "Janjaweed". Several of the drawings include soldiers wearing Sudanese uniforms which may be used to implicate the government in the genocide. These drawings have gone "on tour" throughout the country to enhance awareness among the general public and have been used as evidence in the Sudanese war crimes cases being brought before the ICC.
Margaret Kee
Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Ms. Kee received her BA from Kean College. For 20 years Ms. Kee taught in the Newark Public School system where she became a Project Coordinator for Project Accel, a program for at-risk students. Ms. Kee is a life member of the NAACP and 3rd VP/Education Chairperson for their Newark branch. In addition to her service and board membership on a variety of church and community organizations, Ms. Kee is a member of the NJ Coalition Responds to the Crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
Robert H. Manley, Ph.D.
Dr. Manley was a founder of the Center for Public Service and the John C. Whitehead School for Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. He served as chair of the Political Science Department and as Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies at the Whitehead School. Dr. Manley is a graduate of Colgate University, Cornell University Law School, the Kennedy School at Harvard and the State University of New York at Albany.
Eric Reeves, Ph.D.
Dr. Eric Reeves is a professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He has spent the past seven years working full-time as a Sudan researcher and analyst, publishing extensively both in the United States and internationally. He has testified several times before the Congress, has lectured widely in academic settings, and has served as a consultant to a number of human rights and humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan. Working independently, he has written on all aspects of Sudan's recent history. He has recently received a generous grant from the Humanity First Initiative of the Omidyar Network to support his research and travel. He is presently at work on a book surveying the international response to ongoing war and human destruction in Sudan.
(Source: Wikipedia)
