"The programs we support are long-term in Darfur (province ) and Khartoum," she said. "But Darfur (where, she said, refugees have been in displacement camps for three years) is still in crisis and the focus is more on primary needs... There's more money for emergency response than development. "Education has been secondary, but Save the Children argues it should be part of primary needs." The Khartoum the couple describe is a vast multicultural hub of walled compounds, sandy streets and little crime. Three-digit temperatures are typical and its climate "is like Arizona without a winter," said Ms. Rudder.
China RPCV Katy Rudder and her husband help develop schools in war-torn Sudan
Serving in Sudan : Couple help develop schools in war-torn African nation
Dec 15, 2006
Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Dec. 15--Chattanooga native Katy Rudder came of age during a decade of mega mergers, leveraged buyouts and hostile takeovers, an era when status seekers were cultural icons, some social demographers say.
But after college and graduate school, she did a China stint with the Peace Corps before returning to Chattanooga, where she worked as a community organizer for the Public Education Foundation.
Now 35, she's on family leave from a job that entails promoting and developing schools in Sudan, via Save the Children's five-year effort to boost education in the war-torn African nation. It's a good fit with the humanitarian relief her husband, David Brigham, 34, conducts as a Mercy Corps employee.
So much for the "me generation."
"It's extremely gratifying," Ms. Rudder said, referring to the work they'll soon resume following the four-month Chattanooga visit in which they and son Miles, 2, welcomed Eliza, 8 weeks, to the family.
"But," said Mr. Brigham, "it's not something we do out of pure altruism ; we're not heroes out saving the world. It's of interest to us to work internationally."
Ana Rahona is a Save the Children colleague of Ms. Rudder's. In a recent e-mail, Ms. Rahona wrote, "It's always nice to see a ray of light in a country like Sudan that has been riddled with war and how this inspirational husband-and-wife team are making the world a better place."
Ms. Rudder said she became drawn to distant locales when, as a college junior, she studied in Nepal. She said that her exposure to a women's tea-growing micro enterprise piqued her interest in female empowerment, labor issues and education. "It was a life-altering experience," she said.
For Florida-born Mr. Brigham, who said he'd always envisioned having a career out of the country, the catalyst was a two-week trip to visit his sister in Bosnia. He said the mid- '90s jaunt evolved into a three-year relief job in Kosovo that led to later postings in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and now Sudan.
During two years in Khartoum, the 7 million-population Sudanese capitol, the pair have engaged in establishing schools, teacher training and other education-related initiatives -- projects that can be a tough sell, when poverty and war plague much of the surrounding area, according to Ms. Rudder.
"The programs we support are long-term in Darfur (province ) and Khartoum," she said. "But Darfur (where, she said, refugees have been in displacement camps for three years) is still in crisis and the focus is more on primary needs... There's more money for emergency response than development.
"Education has been secondary, but Save the Children argues it should be part of primary needs."
The Khartoum the couple describe is a vast multicultural hub of walled compounds, sandy streets and little crime. Three-digit temperatures are typical and its climate "is like Arizona without a winter," said Ms. Rudder.
"You run ceiling fans and (window) air-conditioners, but you still sweat," she said.
While many in the city are Muslims, Ms. Rudder said, "I'm not expected to cover my head, but it would be disrespectful for me to show my shoulders and legs or to wear anything low-cut. I wear pants or threequarter skirts. There's a sense of modesty, and no one wears shorts, even men."
Without cinemas, malls, bars, fast-food eateries or organized youth sports, "life is a lot simpler," she said, "but it ends up not so different from what we would spend time doing here (in America)."
Mr. Brigham said, "There's not much of a party scene, but we socialize with other internationals.
"And there are many opportunities for kids," he said. "One of the perks of living there, which is true in much of the developing world, is that people are so accustomed to children and they love them.
"The guards at the Mercy Corps office will take care of Miles, and if we go to a restaurant, people will cross the room to hug him; they may pass him from person to person the whole time we eat.
"Miles, from birth, is used to dealing with people of other colors, religions and cultures," he said. "He'll have the ability to feel comfortable with people who are different from him."
Ms. Rudder said some Americans have misconceptions about living outside the nation.
"When we talk to people who haven't spent much time living abroad, they have a sense of its being dangerous, but it isn't as dangerous as people think," she said. "(Where we live) you don't feel a culture of fear."
The couple plan to return to Sudan next month and may rear their children there through the primary grades, according to Ms. Rudder. "Hopefully for us, this is just the beginning of a long career of helping people, which we want to do," she said. "But also, we'd love to do it internationally."
E-mail Jan Galletta at jgalletta@timesfreepress.com
