Needed: School Lunches!

My name is Delphine.  I am 21 years old and in my last year of secondary school at the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie (LMA), with an academic emphasis on science.  My parents are subsistence farmers.  I have four brothers and five sisters.  I am the only in my family to go to school.  When I was young, a friend of my father’s who has a daughter my age took me to Ouahigouya (a larger town) and enrolled me in primary school.  I have been at the LMA since middle school and have always benefitted from the noon meal offered at this school.  It is a huge source of motivation for many students and it contributes to the greater academic achievement of students of the LMA compared with other middle/secondary schools in the region.

I was touched three years ago when I learned that the Coordinator of Assn NEEED volunteered to support the education of a fellow student who is an orphan (both father and mother).    The Coordinator is paying for all of her educational costs: school fees, school materials, noon meal and all of her personal needs.  When I saw this, it reminded me of when I left my parents to live with the friend of my father’s.  If it wasn’t for this man, I would not be in school.  I would have been forced to marry at a very young age like the other girls my age who stayed in the village.

With all that I have seen, following my studies I want to do humanitarian work, to help those who are less fortunate and bring a smile to those who are in distress.

I thank Assn NEEED and its partners (that’s you, GlobalGiving donors!) for all they/you have done, and do, to support us disadvantaged young women.