Critical Role of the Ahfad University for Women

From the beginning of SAFE's operations, The Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, Sudan has provided a unique set of services critical to the success of the work of SAFE. Ahfad staff, working on behalf of SAFE, obtained information about the needs of Sudanese colleges and universities and supplied this information to SAFE.

The combined set of needs was used to establish criteria for the acquisition of books, journals and other materials. Ahfad continues to represent SAFE in Sudan .

In this capacity, Ahfad receives each shipment, arranges for customs clearance at Port Sudan and for the transport of each shipment from there to Omdurman, unpacks the hundreds of boxes that make up each shipment, sorts books and journals by field or discipline, arranges the materials on tables for inspection by representatives of participating libraries, notifies the participating libraries of the availability of materials — at what are called Book Fairs — and manages the annual Book Fairs. Ahfad also provides SAFE with reports of the responses of libraries to what is offered at the Book Fairs and offers suggestions for acquisition of new materials.

All these activities have been conducted by the Ahfad University for Women and its staff at no cost to SAFE and unselfishly on behalf of all Sudanese academic institutions and their faculty and students.