Today we met a true force for good in East Darfur, Mohamed Abbdulrahman. He’s a bit of a celebrity in the Alight office—he lives and works just next door—and our staff predicted we’d love him. Spoiler alert: they were right!
Mohamed is a welder, and he really keeps the community together. He first met our staff late one night, when he helped restore power to the office after a bad storm. He’s so resourceful, and he works from home out of a wooden shed surrounded by piles of metal and stacks of old beds and other furniture.
“I make a lot of things, like beds, chairs, tables, doors, and stoves. I buy old things from people and fix them and then sell them. I rent all the tools so that I can work.”
Mohamed uses these skills to provide for his entire family. “My father died years ago, leaving my mother with 16 children. In 2008, I dropped out of school and I started working and learning English,” Mohamed explained. But he kept learning. Now, he keeps a chalkboard in his workshop to teach the community English.
“Education is very important,” he shared. “No matter what kind of problems you have, please keep studying keep developing yourself, because it’s the only way to help yourself and others around you.”
One of Mohamed’s dreams for development included owning his own welding tools. So, we went out and got them! These tools will make it easy for him to take on as much work as he’d like.
As he looked over the new tools, Mohamed was so excited. “Now that I don’t have to rent from other people, I can really save money,” he said. “I want to continue building the walls for our house, and now I am sure I will be able to. This will help me a lot!”
