Basket of Sustenance

Your Price: $48.00

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This special gift basket, complete with delicious Sudanese Lentil Soup mix and a Cambodian Peace bell, brings together two distinct refugee groups in Sudan. Skilled women basket weavers who live at Kassab Camp, in a remote region in western Darfur, create our tightly woven “peace baskets” as part of an enterprising initiative at a Women’s Center in the camp. On the other side of this vast country, on the outskirts of the capital city, Khartoum, you will find makeshift camps that house thousands of women and children refugees. It is here that Raile Daffala, a blind 80 year old southern Sudanese woman, has helped to support the establishment of peace schools within the camp – with the help of funds raised by U.S. churches through sales of her special blend of Gramma Raile Sudanese lentil soup.

The peace basket is 5” high x 6” wide. It will come with a bag of lentil and a special blend of Gramma Raile’s soup mix, and is tastefully secured with raffia ribbon and a small copper peace bell – once part of a landmine and now converted into a bell with which villagers in Cambodia adorn their cows. A story card and recipe is included.

The Story

While genocide in Darfur receives some international publicity, the plight of over four million southern Sudanese, many displaced by 25 years of civil war, is often overlooked. Hundreds of thousands who fled the south live in four camps for internally displaced persons outside the capital city of Khartoum. Residents are predominantly women and children (men having been killed and young males often becoming the “lost boys of Sudan” who fled to neighboring countries). Job opportunities are few. And public education is largely out of reach for the children who cannot afford tuition.

It was through Raile Daffala, a blind 80 year old southern Sudanese woman’s quiet but determined effort that the Sudan Relief Task Force in Williamstown, Massachusetts was born. Here, in this quiet New England town, she touched the hearts of many as she shared her story of hardship in the camps during her 2001 visit to the United States to celebrate the installation of her daughter-in-law as pastor at a church in town.

Today through sales of Gramma Raile’s special soup mix and the church’s fundraising activities, almost 100 children are being educated and fed at a “peace school” in the camp.

We are pleased to partner with Darfur Peace and Development Organization and the Sudan Relief Fund in Williamstown, Massachusetts in bringing you this special gift basket – one that we hope will bring you sustenance this season.

Learn more about the Darfur Basket initiative.