Help 80 Secondary Pupils in Niger Read and Write

It all started back in 2009. 10 years ago. What a marvelous adventure!

In the beginning …

We founded our non-profit organization,  « les Amis de Hampaté Bâ », to support an amazing pedagogical project initiated by our good friend Homa K. at an amazing school, Hampaté Bâ Middle School in Niamey.   Our hope along with Homa was to improve the quality of education with special teacher training and help reduce the dropout rate of underprivileged secondary pupils with reading and writing deficiencies through tutoring programs.

Our beliefs stronger than the Challenge 

We believed in the importance of equal access to education and opportunity for all students, no matter their economic background. But this was indeed a big challenge to tackle: to improve the results of Nigerien children with illiterate parents and several years behind in their academic level upon entering secondary school.  Another problem : the parents could not afford to pay for secondary education. So we decided to sponsor scholarships to put deserving underprivileged youth in Hampaté Bâ Secondary school, our most difficult goal being to bring these underachievers up to level and to keep them in school!  

A Wild Adventure 

After 10 years, we can honestly say it has been a wild adventure for the students and teachers and for us too.  We had to adapt to each other, valuing mutual respect and the giving and sharing of knowledge and skills. The students learned from our projects and we learned from the students; their hopes, their difficulties, their desires.  Tutoring programs were implemented little by little and were first met with resistance both by the students and the parents and even by some teachers, who thought the struggling students would never make it.  But acquiring reading and writing skills was a « must » to turn these students into confident above average achievers.  We remained believers and kept going !

Stepping from Middle School to High School 

As the tutoring program became more intensified with technology in our computer room used to improve reading and writing skills, and as the teachers became more at ease in small groups with the students, the students themselves became more confident and more motivated and liked getting better results on their exams. They became proud and when the Hampaté Bâ High School opened in 2015, many of our scholarship students were admitted.  In 2018, three years later, we had our first High School Graduates!

Dreams that have become Reality

Hampaté Bâ’s reading and writing program has led to marvelous discoveries and success stories that were once dreams, and are now actually coming true.  Our students have worked hard and have been courageous. Due to their success in the Brevet (BEPC) exam and the Baccaulaureat, those who succeeded will have an opportunity to attend professional Institutes for specialized training and studies or universities for higher education.  This is their dream come true!

Our Impact is Real 

We are proud to share with you the 2019 Nigerien test results of our scholarship students: CONGRATULATIONS !

The 2019 BAC : 55.50% success rate for our students

(compared to Niger’s national average of 25% : 1 student out of 4)

The 2019 BEPC : 62.50% success rate for our students

(compared to the average of 33.5% in the region of Niamey)

A Bright Future  

We wanted more than anything to help struggling underprivileged boys and girls to catch up on literacy skills and to give them a brighter future, and that future has come !  The quality education you have offered them will inevitably lead to a quality employment.  As I am writing, our graduate students are applying to universities and professional institutes to follow fiscal, accounting, business, law, ONG, engineering, health and gynecological careers. The majority have already been accepted and some with scholarships. The success of our students inspires us and reminds us that we must continue to provide quality educational opportunities to these worthy underserved students who desire a better future for their families and their country. 

Breaking News : Our first student to land a job !

Our student, Hamsatou, who chose to attend a health institute after her BEPC, was the best in her class and has been hired by the biggest pharmacy in Niamey as an assistant pharmacian. Her perseverance in mastering reading and writing skills paid off! Bravo!   

It’s not over. We must continue!Many young students from impoverished and illiterate backgrounds were able to attend secondary school thanks to you! This would not have been possible without your kindness and generosity. Niger is one of, if not the poorest countries in the world and only 6% of girls and 9% of boys attend middle school and just 3% go on to high school. We look forward to keeping you updated about the many ways your support is changing young lives in Niger. Your gift of secondary school education to these students will have long-standing effects on the students, their families and their community. THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS!   

The Big Challenge

We have been writing for years now about our big challenge to bring reading and writing skills up to level for students at Hampate Ba Secondary School. This is especially true concerning our underprivileged scholarship students who arrive in 6th grade, coming from public schools with jam- packed classes where they virtually have learned very little, if anything at all and who have the added disadvantage of having illiterate parents who do not speak French with them at home. So they start Hampate Ba Middle School with a big disadvantage and are discouraged from the beginning. We have remedied this mostly through our fabulous new After School Tutoring Program that we have started to implement with trained teachers who are able to boost the students. And now, in conjunction with this tutoring action,  we were able to confirm during our trip in April to Niamey, that our recent introduction of technology is also giving good results. Therefore, we are proud to announce that we are currently using new technology to enhance motivation for improving the very necessary skills of reading and writing. 

Reading and Writing as a Backbone of all Content Areas 

Before discussing technology and its unquestionable advantages with the reading and writing process (language arts), it is necessary to remember that many other subjects within a school curriculum require reading and writing skills in order to address the content. Mathematics as well as science projects often require explanations in writing and comprehensive reading understanding to do research. In fact, all subjects in the curriculum require reading comprehension and knowledge of the writing process, as students need to be able to read, research and write about a particular topic. 

How does Technology Help?

Technology is definitely a valuable tool that has the ability to enhance the learning skills for reading and writing and has the capability to motivate the learner and the teacher for creativity. Students acquire literary skills vital for success in school today and teachers invent new methods for teaching. 

Projectors as an efficient and fun Tool

As we visited different classrooms during our visit to Niamey in April, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the projectors we had purchased and delivered were being well put to use ! History/geography teachers were able to develop thematic units on weather and world regions.  Projecting images and illustrations on the screen gained a whole new dimension and certainly beat copying texts from the blackboard. This type of resource also helps develop the autonomy of the students, as they also learn to use the projector on their own and present their projects.  

Our computer lab has proved successful so far as a guide and a tool : it keeps getting better!

The Internet is constructing global bridges for students to learn, by changing the way that information is absorbed, processed, and used. Technology is influencing how students read, write, listen, and communicate. Our computer lab, under the supervision of an expert computer teacher, is encouraging students to be attentive, to do research, and to go further than what they have learned in class. From an attendance list, we are happy to confirm that during our visit at the school, we were able to determine that the students who have regularly used the computer lab for research, are more enthusiastic and have a higher success rate than those who have only copied a lesson from the blackboard in class. This is excellent news and we hope the tendency continues!

 Listen to what the Students/Teachers have to say : 

« I come to the computer lab afterschool as often as possible. I want to succeed my BEPC exam and when I do Internet research, I am able to go deeper into the subjects and then I get motivated to learn more and more. » comments  Razak, an avid computer user in middle school.”

“I hear the students repeating often that they are excited since they know that the computer work they are doing is special, since it is something that their parents did not have the opportunity to do when they were at school. I am really amazed to see the progress made by the students and how technology has enhanced their motivation to do schoolwork. » says Mr. Namata, the proud computer after-school teacher.

«  I love science and I am happy to see I can read new scientific terms and also use those terms in a sentence.Those new words quickly become familiar to me » comments Nafissa who aims to be a doctor one day.

“ I like getting to my history/geography class as early as possible. We have a team that is interested in technology and so we have learned to set-up the projector and have everything ready for the lesson when the teacher arrives. We all feel good about being independent and accomplished. We want this to continue because the class is so much more alive and interesting with images projected onto the screen. The technique of this teacher really makes us learn better.” exclaims with enthusiasm Sidi who is a 6^th-grader

What is Next ?

Next on the list is to teach the students how to do Power Point Presentations with visuals, so important for keeping the attention of young minds.  When all of these technology-enhanced lessons are combined, we hope the young learners at Hampaté Bâ will continue eagerly to improve their reading and writing skills.  Most find it more enjoyable to use the computer than struggle with flipping pages.  

Students and Teachers going beyond ...  

We are happy to have some Technology- savvy teachers at Hampaté Bâ, who are becoming an inspiration to our students.  It is evident that technology is in everyone’s best interest, especially that of our students, to utilize this dynamic tool within their school day and to give them better chances for employment in the future. 

We need your donations to help finance scholarships and keep girls in Hampaté Bâ School that implements such   innovative projects. Be part of the change! Your contributions give our students a better chance through technology education to improve their skills, to help their families, to develop their community.  You can make a difference in their lives. THANK YOU !