Schooling for 120 Students of Tourari in Timbuktu

Dear Tourari school supporters,

I want to wish you a wonderful summer!

Thank you so much for your generosity in supporting the operations for the Tourari school. Your important support will help us fund the payment of teachers, books/school supplies, and basic nutrition. The Tourari school is one of the best in the network of schools Caravan to Class supports. The parents, villages elders, school director, and teachers are incredibly committed to education and literacy in their villages. From the regular attendance we take in the school we support, we see that the number of students attending the Tourari school has grown this year to 142 at last count, with double the number of girls versus boys, 95 vs 47.

The security situation in Timbuktu has stabilized greatly in the past 18 months, despite some challenges in the past few weeks. However, just yesterday a coalition of Tuareg-led rebel groups have signed an historic peace deal with the Malian government after securing more autonomy from the Malian government. Under the peace deal, the Malian government agreed to allow the formation of democratically elected regional councils in the country's war-torn north, and dropped arrest warrants for a number of militant leaders. There is much hope, but now we will have to see if the facts on the ground match this hope to bring the need stability and likely follow-on increased support for a deserving part of the world.

I recently returned from my annual trip to Timbuktu to see our latest school being built in the village of Samdiar and to scout out our next school project. While I enjoyed the traditional village welcome, the frenzied dancing in the sand, shaking every one of at least 150 of the students hands, and the camels, what hit me most were the words of the head of the village, “You were here last year and promised to build us a school. Caravan to Class has fulfilled its promise. No one has ever done anything like that for us to give our children a brighter future with the possibilities that an education brings. We will never forget Caravan to Class.” Being the only NGO building and funding the operations of schools in the area, we see our work as vital to a deserving but severely at-risk population. This includes the village of Tourari where the school is doing incredible well.

One exciting piece of news to report is that Caravan to Class has been invited, as a finalist, to apply for a grant from an organization that the Big Birthday Wish sponsors, Eileen and Debbie, know well. Should we secure this grant, Caravan to Class will launch a Female Adult Literacy and Empowerment 2yr program in 9 villages, including the village of Tourari, to teach literacy in local languages, to 225 mothers of students in schools built by Caravan to Class, and a follow-up practical course that helps these women use that literacy to improve their daily lives. We will not know whether we will get this grant until Fall, but will let you know…This program, while designed to provided needed skills to women, will also help increase attendance and cultural prioritization of education in the villages where Caravan to Class works.

Finally, please find attached with this report some pictures we took on "students on their way to school" and a picture of the new school Caravan to Class just finished building in the village of Samdiar.

Thank you again for your support.

Sincerely,

Barry Hoffner

Founder and Executive Director, Caravan to Class

Links:

• Caravan to Class Facebook page, please join
• Caravan to Class website
• Caravan to Class Youtube

Dear Tourari Donors

The purpose of this note is simply to send you a personal greetings from Timbuktu, Mali. I came here to visit our Samdiar school under construction, tour the villages where Caravan to Class operates, including Tourari and scout out our next school project.

I am happy to say that Timbuktu is on the road to recovery from the takeover of Northern Mali, including Timbuktu, by the Ansar Dine militants almost exactly 3 years ago. While there are still no tourists in the city and it remains heavily fortified by UN Peacekeepers and the French military, there is a feeling that things are returning to normal. Refugees have, for the most part, returned. There is much more life on the streets than one year ago. The people seem to be moving from a period of looking for basic needs to looking towards the future. There is a feeling that if only the MNLA (Tuareg leadership) would sign the peace accord, there could be a noticeable inflow of opportunities.

I was happy to visit the school that Caravan to Class built last year in the village of Tombouz. Though the students were on school break, I loved seeing the finished school, the new well next to the school and new block of toilets. Most of all, I loved seeing the writing on the blackboard from before the students were on break. In the 6^th grade classroom, there was a test on the blackboard with one essay question being “What was the role played by Djenne and Timbuktu in the 16^th century”. The head of the village of Tombouz was overjoyed to see me again and asked to send a special thank you to the donors who made the Tombouz school possible. Unfortunately, do to security issues on the day I was planning to go to Tourari, I was unable to visit the village of Tourari.

I did visit our current school construction project in the village of Samdiar. Samdiar is a very large village right on the Niger river about 20 kilometers from the town of Timbuktu. It is an ethnically mixed village of Songhay, Tuareg (black), Peul and Bozo who seem to get along well together. I am enclosing some pictures of the visit to Samdiar which speak for themselves….the usual incredible welcome, the frenzied women dancing, the kids all wanting to shake my hand, the camels, and the traditional chat with the village elders in the tent. The head of the area’s commune (a commune is comprised of 15-20 villages) even showed up and told me that the school was the first made of cement in his whole commune. The village chief was very happy and said “you came to our village, on behalf of Caravan to Class, one year ago and said you would build us a school. You have done that. No one has ever done anything like that for our village. We will remember you and your donors forever.”

Next I went to scout out two villages for our next school project and as a result, we will already start working on a budget for the Kakondji school in our 2015-16 budget that begins July 1, 2015. Kakondji is also on the Niger River in the same commune as Samdiar (the commune of Dangha). It is also a large village of children, which you will see from the pictures. It is incredible to think that this village, with so many children, has never had a school. The village elders spoke quite passionately about wanting to see their kids educated…that times have changed and they realize the need for the children to read and write. Kakondji fits all our criteria for a successful school construction project.

We are into our 6^th year with our partner NGO Nord et Developpement and its founder, Mr. Hamadou Toure. We took a chance on partnering with this small local NGO in early 2010 and this decision has paid off. Hamadou has an incredibly structured process for working with the villages and the authorities that keeps things organized and on track. He has managed to create a network of partners like Caravan to Class that operate in different sectors to uplift the villages where we work. The principal areas are Education (Caravan to Class), Sanitation, and Food Security. As for Sanitation, wherever Caravan to Class builds a school, the German NGO Arche Nova has built both latrines, provided daily sanitation supplies and training, and has drilled a well. In the village of Kakondji I was able to see a very successful food security project being implemented where network partner Arche Nova & Plan Mali purchased a large pump to bring water from the Niger inland, villages cleared field for planting grain and vegetables. The project also purchased seeds, oil and diesel (for the pump). The villagers pay 1/3 of their harvest back to the village to be able to continue the purchase of seeds, oil/diesel and machine maintenance.

Finally, we will be launching a new program in our 2015-16 budget…A Female adult literacy class. From our contacts with the villages we have realized that the more involved we get the parents, particularly mothers, with the schools, the more they support their child’s (particularly girls) education. We already have the classrooms, the solar for light, and the teachers…Thus, adding a few classes a week in the evenings for the mothers to learn to read and write in their own language(s), in a fun and well-structured way, would be very complementary to our existing work.

Sincerely,

BH