Needed: School Lunches!

As this school year ends, three students who have benefitted from the noon meal which you have supported at the Lycee Moderne de l'Amitie (the girls' middle/secondary school) wish to share their stories:

• Fatou.  I will enter my final year of secondary school next year.  My parents are subsistence farmers in a village 3 km from my school.  I am the only one in my family to go to school.  On weekends and vacation, I sell boiled eggs on the side of the road to help support my studies. I thank you for enabling me to have a noon meal and not have to walk the 3 km to and from home (in the hot Sahel sun) but rather stay at school and study.  I am majoring in science in school and hope to become a gynecologist.
• Omaimatou.  I come from a polygamous family with 12 children.  My father is a subsistence farmer and my mother sells small biscuits at the side of the road.  The only child in my family to advance to secondary school, I am a science major with two years left in secondary school.  During vacation, I sell bananas and mangoes in the market.  I look forward to serving my country in whatever capacity I qualify for training in.
• Zakiatou.  I am majoring in literature in my final year at the Lycee Moderne de l'Amitie.  The daughter of subsistence farmers, I am the only child in my family to advance to the final year in secondary school.  I want to thank you for supporting the school's canteen which provides me and my fellow students a noon meal which we would otherwise not have.  I prepare and sell small biscuits in my village during vacation to support my studies.  Upon graduation, I hope to get a scholarship to the university to study law.

Three hundred seven village girls attended the Lycee this year.  Academic results are not yet available for this school year.  Last year, a full 100% of students in the math/science series passed national year-end exams and 82% passed exams in literature.  This is an extraordinary credit to the students and teachers, and to a simple NOON MEAL which enables students to concentrate on their studies.  Thank you for continuing to be an important part of these young village women's success.

Four hundred thirty-four girls are enrolled in the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie this school year, including 130 girls who are in their first year at the middle/secondary school. The following was written by a student who volunteered to share her story.

My name is Risanata. I am 18 years old and I am in class “1ere A”. (In the French educational system, Risanata is in the next to last year in secondary school, and has chosen a concentration in languages and literature). My classes include: philosophy, English, German, French, history, geography and math. Following secondary school, I hope to continue my studies in English or Geography.

I come from the village of Bissigaye, five km from the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie (middle/secondary school) where I am a student. My father has three wives. My older brothers work digging for gold in the mines.

Each morning, I get up at 4am and with my sisters we go fetch water to fill the family’s canaries (large clay canisters) for the day. After that, I bathe and prepare for the day ahead. At 6am, I leave for school. I am in class from 7am to noon and from 3pm to 5pm. At noon, I eat at the canteen with my classmates. (Lunch consists of a plate of beans, rice or spaghetti.)  Even if there were food at home at noon, with the distance I have to walk to school, and the heat (reaching 113 degrees this time of year), it would be very difficult to go home and come back to school in the afternoon.

The school canteen is really important to my, and my classmates’, ability to study. After lunch, we profit from the shade of the trees to study our course notes. We have established a system of tutoring in which students who master certain subjects assist other students who are more challenged in these subjects.

I would like to say Thank You to our generous partners who, through Association NEEED, help us in our studies and daily lives, with the knowledge that education is the motor of development.