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.