Gender Equality Niger Project #4110

Mentoring for At-Risk Nomadic Girls in Rural Niger

by Rain for the Sahel and Sahara

Mentoring for At-Risk Nomadic Girls in Rural Niger

Project Report | Jun 1, 2018
ALC Students need support.

By Jacob Dolan-Bath | Project Leader

Farida is in 9th grade (4ieme) and is a 16-year-old Tuareg girl from the village of Elmiki, West of Aouderas at the foothills of the Air Mountains. She is a great student, calm, reflective and likes to help the younger girls in her dorm room. Unfortunately, she lost her mother last year, leaving a 2-month-old infant behind. This was a very traumatic experience for her and now her own health issues are becoming fairly serious. After experiencing pain and inflammation in her knee, doctors discovered that she has a bone spur at her knee joint that is progressing and causing her significant discomfort, requiring surgery. Without the surgery, she will not be able to walk in the future. Ironically, during Farida's first year at the center, she told us that she wanted to become a doctor to help people. Following her mother's illness that led to her death, and her current medical issues, the desperate need for access to health care is a shocking reality. We need your support to provide health care services for our Agadez Learning Center. Farida is an example of why this cause is a worthy one. Our students receive a lot of support from the Center, but we need your help to continue to render these services for the cases like Farida. Your support could mean the difference between a child losing the ability to walk, see, hear. We will continue to support these students no matter what.

“My name is Farida, I come from the village of Elmiki where I attended primary school. I am 16 years old and primary school I was admitted to the CEG which my dad heard about at the ALC Center. He was the one who had taken steps to have me admitted to the ALC Center, and it was thanks to the Director of the Center, Mr. Alhassan, that we had a rewarding and convincing interview to accept at the Center. This year, I am in the 9th-grade class attending the Mai Manga OUMARA Secondary Education Complex. Even before being admitted into the 7^th grade, I traveled several times to Agadez, to visit sometimes our parents in Agadez, and also those who went into exodus due to insecurity and rebellion in northern Niger. When I arrived at college I immediately noticed that there are more students in my Primary School in Elmiki. Just in the last month of my second year, I lost my mother. This was quite terrible for months because she left us a little sister born just forty days ago. I will never forget the pain I felt all my life. We feel safe at the center.

The Center provides capacity-building courses that we like because we understand better the explanations here and they are less demanding than the courses offered in class at the Center, unlike the college. We felt better than other schoolmates do not have this opportunity. I am so happy to be among the ALC Center students because I met some of them. Students and I became friends with the Fulani and Tuareg. The hardest moments were when I learned that my mother was very sick. The Center granted me a leave of absence. When I arrived in the

village I found my mother lying down and very sick, and I had tears in my eyes. With all the care she received, her health was not improving because she was always affected by the disease. A few days later, in the morning, I noticed people coming in the group to our home; my mother's sisters were crying, and I did not understand what was going on. It only later on that I learned that my mother passed away. I cried a lot because she left my very small sisters, and that was last year in February 2017.” - Farida.

Farida needs your help as do so many other children. Their need is urgent and time is precious. Please support students like Farida, so that they may continue their dreams. Donate Today and help these children get back to better health.

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Mar 2, 2018
From a Mentors Perspective

By Jacob Dolan-Bath | Project and Communications Coordinator

“An enormous number of NGOs have poured tons of money into communities but they leave and then what? We need programs that teach skills and create relationships that will endure.”
– Alhassene Aboubacar, Director of RAIN’s Agadez Learning Center.

Mentor: Safi Guili: Every time that we get ready to start something I invite all of my sponsored students, group everybody together, and discuss with them step by step. There are different challenges that I encounter while working as a mentor. Every time one presents something unknown, there will be difficulties.

For example – since the younger girls have never seen how to make a Tabarma mat, how would they know how? So I need to explain things little by little. I have to provide many examples in order for them to understand learning the craft.

If after I have done some sessions with girls, and they still have not come to understand the weaving, I have to look for another method to help them understand.

In order to make a tabarma mat you must select the right kind of thick straw and buy dye and get an animal skin. To explain I get all of my students in one place. Each one looks for a small stick to wrap with the twine coming from their piece of leather. Then, the pieces of thick straw, already soft after being soaked in water, are placed aside. We pull the cords to a certain distance to create tension on the loom and we fix them in place with a wooden peg in the ground. Sometimes, when weaving with the cord, the girls get lost. I re-explain to them what they need to do to fix it. The girl will follow me and after giving many examples they come to understand.

I talk with the girls about education and health issues in addition to the craft training. Before the program, the girls did not know how to make the mats, but with this program, they learn how. They can now make winnowing pans and with guidance from their mentor, a tabarma mat.

Mentoring has changed my life in many ways. Now I lead discussions about education. I mobilize our community the best I can. For example, at the start of each year, I go around the village and hamlets in order to look for school-age children to enroll in school. This past school year, I bought 8 new students - 4 girls and 4 boys – to attend.

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Dec 4, 2017
Spreading Effect of Education

By Jacob Dolan-Bath | Project and Communications Coordinator

“I have learned a lot of things through my mentor. She talks with us about health, telling us to be sure to wash our hands before and after we eat and to wash our clothes regularly. She also tells us about education with examples about the importance of education. She also teaches us how to make crafts.” – Safiatou.

The effects of education spread to the communities of these children too. They learn and grow, re-teaching others what they have learned. The mentors inspire students -- giving them a reason to think of the future with hope and eagerness. Educating girls is the way to improve society. Girls grow up to be women who send their children to school, have smaller and healthier families, and contribute to their communities. Mentors are key to motivating parents to invest in their daughters by sending them to school.

“I share what I learn from my mentor with my parents and with my friends. Even among us sponsored kids, I have a friend that speaks/is Songhai [Safiatou is a Tuareg, Tamasheq speaker, but also bilingual in Songhai and learning French at school as the third language]. As soon as my mentor finishes explaining something to us in Tamasheq, I explain to my Songhai friend. She understands very well with me there. Everything that our mentor explains, I listen very well and after I explain that to my friend.” – Safiatou.

Niger is in dire need of educated people. Mentors are the key that unlocks the potential for young girls’ and boys’ bright minds. Students like Safiatou share their knowledge with those around them.

Mentors help nurture students reach their highest potentials academically, socially, and personally. Mentors also teach fundamental skills like traditional crafts. These skills will likely become a means of a potential income. Mentors’ encouragement of education is vital for these children as many of the students come from families where education is not valued or understood to be important.

As the importance of education spreads from children to adults Niger will continue to improve and evolve. With your help, there will be more mentors for more children and more children staying in school as the result.

You can help change the lives of so many young girls, who wouldn’t have the opportunity to thrive otherwise. Donating helps more than an individual, it helps whole communities.

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