Educate 270 Children in Northern Nigeria

“Many African children grow up without having seen, let alone owned beautiful, well-illustrated books which inspire them to a life of reading, beauty, learning and curiosity for the world” – Bibi Bakare of Cassava Republic Publishers

Bibi is quite right because this is the reality for about 95% of children like Muna and her little friends in public/community primary schools in the most populous country in Africa; Nigeria.

Most of the parents of the children that we serve like that of Muna and her friends in the rural communities of Lila, Gilmari and Lainde our partner schools, the CDM Schools in Mubi Hills in Mubi North Local Government Area cannot afford to buy textbooks for their children, let alone storybooks that will inspire them to become lifelong learners. When we started supporting the schools in 2017, the children had never seen a storybook before and the last time they got a donation of textbooks was in 2010.

The schools are located in the remote villages of Adamawa State without any form of social amenities/infrastructure (power, roads, hospitals, internet, schools). The schools that we work with are the only access that these children and their families have to civilization. Therefore, storybooks are extremely important because through the stories that the children read they can travel to places in their imaginations, beyond the confines of their limiting environment and dream of a better future.

According to Kate DiCamillo,  "Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or a duty. It should be offered as a gift."  We strongly believe that although textbooks are vital for literacy and with your investment, we have donated more than 2,342 textbooks, they can be a chore or duty for children to read. However, classic storybooks like Peter the Cat and  the Ugly Duckling  improve their creativity, critical thinking skills, imagination, communication and overall literacy skills.

Thanks to you; our GlobalGiving Donors; Muna and her 86 classmates in CDM Primary School Lainde love school and reading the over 165 storybooks donated to the school. However, we still need $$ 30,295 to go to ensure that little girls like Muna, and their friends continue their education and follow their dreams.  CDM Primary School Lainde still needs flooring and windows, CDM Secondary School Lila needs solar panels for their computers, and more laptops and all the schools need educational materials (writing materials, textbooks and storybooks) and over 75 desks. Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donating to our project. Please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues so that we can invest in more children like Muna and her little friends, to give them storybooks that will inspire them to continue on their journey as lifelong learners and to a bright future!

Therefore, we encourage you to invest in the future of  Muna and her little friends so that they can become successful adults. Muna dreams of becoming a teacher.  Please visit our project page bit.ly/2TLI6Bm for details. Thank you so much for all you have done and are doing to promote quality education in underserved communities.

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Education was one of the major causalities of the Boko Haram insurgency, with over 3 million children in need of emergency education support in Northern Nigeria; especially in States like Adamawa State in Northern Nigeria. The new school year is usually a period of concern for the parents of pupils like Zachariah and the management team of our partner organization CDM Foundation. The parents of the pupils in the three CDM Primary Schools (Lila, Lainde and Gilmari ) that we adopted in 2017 in Mubi  Hills in Adamawa State are peasant farmers and paying the school fees and getting educational supplies is a burden that most of them struggle with, thus leading to low enrolment and attendance rates in the new school year. When these peasant farmers cannot provide educational supplies or writing materials for their children like Zachariah, the children become demotivated and uninterested in school, leading to low attendance and eventually dropping out of school.

Also,  for the management of CDM Foundation, the lower the enrolment rate, the more difficult it becomes to keep the schools running effectively. The CDM schools are right in the communities of the children, unlike the public schools that are about a 3-hour trek away. Studies have revealed that children who lack writing materials fall behind in learning during the early years and often stay behind for the remaining time they spend in school, and the gap widens over the years. The number of years of education a child also receives directly affects their future earnings.

Our dear donors, according to the Coordinator of the schools; Comfort; since 2017, when you decided to invest in 13-year-old, Zachariah, his peers and their teachers by taking the burden of buying educational resources from the parents; the enrolment rate in the schools has doubled by 100% and the attendance rate has gone up by 95%.

In September last year, after the children resumed for the new academic year, we did fundraising for Back-To-School supplies to ensure that little girls like 7-year-old Dorcas and young boys like 13-year-old Zachariah will have access to quality education stay in school and will not be left behind.  Our goal for the Back-To-School Project was to support pupils like Dorcas and Zachariah in the underserved community primary schools; CDM Lila, Lainde and Gilmari with writing materials. We are glad to inform you that we raised enough funds because of you our wonderful donors to support 479 pupils and their teachers with writing materials. Thus, with your investment our amazing donors; every child who enrolled for the new academic session like Dorcas and Zachariah got writing materials and no child was left behind!

However, we still need $$ 30,296 to go to ensure that little girls like Dorcas, young boys like Zachariah and their friends continue their education and follow their dreams.  CDM Primary School Lainde still needs flooring, and windows, CDM Secondary School Lila needs solar panels for their computers, and more laptops and all the schools need educational materials (writing materials, textbooks and storybooks) and about 75 desks. Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donate to our project. Please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues so that we can invest in more children like Dorcas and Zachariah and their Schoolmates, especially in this Covid-19 season to give them a foundation for their future and dreams!

Therefore, we encourage you to invest in the future of Dorcas, Zachariah and their schoolmates so that they can become successful adults. Zachariah dreams of becoming a doctor.  Please visit our project page bit.ly/2TLI6Bm for details. Thank you so much for all you have done and are doing to promote quality education in underserved communities.

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