Mentoring for At-Risk Nomadic Girls in Rural Niger

“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.