By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director
170 women mentors and the 841 elementary and middle school students they serve are gearing up for end-of-year. Fortunately, across our 5 partner middle schools, over 1,000 students benefitted from over 670,000 student-hours of free, after school courses - helping ensure they are ready to demonstrate all they've learned in their final exams
We are thrilled to say that our mentors and students have stayed strong - even after a particularly challenging year, with families and communities facing the unknowns of a coup, military leadership, leaving ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States), starting the Alliance of Sahel States, and shifting international partnerships.
In these uncertain times, students are guided in their efforts by mentors like Yamaji and Salele:
"As a mentor, I help to educate children and raise awareness among parents. My biggest regret is having left school when I failed the exam. What I truly hope is for our children to be able to continue to study, so they don’t make the same mistake I did." - Yamaji
"You've helped us to rise to the challenge. Before, our children didn't go to school. But today, with your determination to help, we've made the community aware of the importance of education, and we've been able to bring some pupils back to school." - Salele
The leadership of these women is critical - with both mentees and their parents.
Issa Elhaj, the Inspector of Primary Education in Aderbissinat explains why: "RAIN intervenes in five schools in our area. These schools were poorly attended because parents did not understand the importance of school and allowed their children to go whenever they wanted. As a result, absenteeism was very high. But through its intervention, RAIN recruited local women to raise awareness, informing parents hamlet by hamlet and door by door, so they could enroll and keep their children in school, especially girls.
Before the project was launched, attendance was poor in these villages. After our evaluation following RAIN’s intervention, there is a clear improvement in the children’s attendance."
We are grateful for partners like Yamaji, Salele, and Issa for helping these children to access education - a right that should be available to children all the world over.
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