Mentoring for At-Risk Nomadic Girls in Rural Niger

As always, the most powerful stories of impact come from the beneficiaries themselves. Please enjoy this narrative from Boulie, one of our dedicated mentors and her student, Fatima.

My name is Boulie, I am a mentor in Bonfeba, a community located north of the Tillabéri region of Niger. I’m pictured here with my mentored girl, Fatima Alhassane, who is in the 6^th grade this year. With RAIN’s support, I am mentoring 5 school children (3 girls and 2 boys) along with Fatima, whom I have been mentoring since 2009, when she was 8 years old. She is now 13, and this is her last year in our school.  When she graduates at the end of this year, she will go on to high school in Tillabéri next year.  I am very proud of Fatima, who is one of my success stories during all these years of mentoring. I will let her tell you our story: 

“At first, I went to school only when I felt like going, as my parents did not do much to encourage me. But then Boulie came along to motivate me to attend. She used to say:  ‘Fatima, you are a very intelligent and wonderful girl, you need to go to school and be somebody! You can be a nurse, a school teacher, whatever you want to be, if you go to school and succeed!’ Encouragement that leads you to dream about your future. I began to be interested in going to school, did not miss a class, arrived on time, and listened carefully to my teachers, and my grades began to be much better.

As with the other four mentored kids, Boulie will follow up on our schooling year after year. Sometimes she will invite me to her house to continue talking and working on practical skills. But when I reached the 5^th grade, she noticed I was not attending my Saturday morning practical skills class. My father had me help at his general store instead – he said that I was old enough and so must help.  I wasn’t happy about working in the store while my friends were in class, and neither was my mother. Boulie understood, and said: ‘Don’t worry, I will not let him ruin your schooling when you’re about to finish primary school.’ She tried to persuade my father, but he continued taking me to the shop. She asked some community elders to talk to him, but he still refused. She decided that every Saturday she would go to the shop and get me to bring to class.  The first few Saturdays, my father was angry, but did not confront her. She continued every Saturday until everyone knew what was going on at my father’s store. Finally came the Saturday that my father left to go to his store without asking me to come with him. I knew that Boulie and I had won the battle and I ran to her house to tell her. Since that day, I have never missed a mentoring class, and my father isn’t angry with Boulie anymore as he sees me succeeding in school. I give thanks to God and thanks to RAIN for this mentoring program. Even if I attend college in Tillaberi, I will still benefit from Boulie’s advice whenever I come home for the holidays until I become a teacher. That is what I want to be when I grow up.”  

Your support gives Fatima and Boulie the courage to makes dreams come true. Thank you!

Links:

• Read more about how RAIN transforms the community of Bonfeba!
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• Sign up for RAIN News

This October, Bess visited a group of our mentors in Arlit to see how our mentoring programs were starting out in the new school year.

RAIN’s mentoring and scholarship program has succeeded beyond our hopes, in ways we never imagined.  Most of the women in this rural African region are illiterate, yet they come to school each week to encourage their girls to stay in school and to succeed. They teach traditional crafts, which offer future earning opportunities for the girls. The surprise was that the experience motivated the mentors to become literate.  In response, RAIN has offered bi-lingual literacy classes to the mentors, who are jumping in with flying colors.

How to make an education program self-sustaining? The mentors love the program; they readily agreed to earn, with RAIN’s help, money to buy their own materials for the craft classes. This is a nomadic region of herders.  The women told us that if RAIN bought them some starter goats, they would keep a herd to support the program and help them out, too. 

A year later, we find that the goats are thriving and multiplying. The women keep the female goats for milk and cheese for their families, and sell the males to generate money to pay for their practical skills materials.

Stories like these show us that with committed and motivated partners, education can be self-supporting! Education is a long-term goal --- we are committed to seeing these girls through school for as long as they can attend. 

It costs $2,500 to develop a cooperative enterprise, such as herding, with each group of 20 mentors.  That’s $125 to give six school girls a leg up and support 20 dedicated mentors. We call that a great return on a great investment!  We’re so grateful to be sharing these exciting success stories, which wouldn’t happen without you.