Bring Lights, Books and Computers to Niger

Hadi Attaher is an 8th grade student at Rain for the Sahel and Sahara's Agadez Learning Center (ALC). She comes from a small village where her younger siblings are enrolled in elementary school. Her older sister dropped out after elementary school, leaving Hadi to attend middle school alone. She explains that coming to the ALC was, “the first time I saw all these beautiful and wonderful things like the city lit by electricity as if it was daylight… vegetables sold year-round in the market, middle schools, hospitals & health centers, people who are not only Tuareg…”

Continuing on to Middle School was necessary to pursue her goals: “My wish is to be a teacher… because I would like to help children in my village to have a better future, and for the development of our town, and for our youth who are, at the moment, left far behind.” This goals is particularly meaningful for Hadi, having left her siblings in her home village with her father, who had worked for the Imouraren Mining Company, but who is now unemployed.

RAIN students and their mentors are changing the ways that communities in Niger think about education. Thank you for leading the way in changing how communities here think about Niger.

Your support helps students, like Hadi, receive an education and an opportunity to provide for themselves in the future.

Thank you for believing in their potential.

This is my first time writing this letter to you. As I do so, I’m filled with both trepidation and hope. Your support has accomplished so much in the last 17 years, yet there is so much more to do.

           Thank you for bringing opportunity to Niger – the opportunity for children to attend school, the opportunity for women to earn their own income, and the opportunity for communities to feed themselves, because without food and water, nothing else matters. These students, entrepreneurs, herders, and farmers are all willing to put in the work, but without you, the opportunities would not exist.

By giving today, you can make a difference.

Last year, the pilot middle school program helped 100% of graduating students to pass their year-end national exam. This fall, you can expand the reach of women mentors to two new middle schools in communities that have never had local access to middle schools. This is an incredible opportunity to support national expansion of education services. They need your support to ensure a successful first year!

“When I heard I passed the elementary school exam and could continue to middle school, my mother and I worried about how I could pursue my studies... [Your support] allowed me to… purchase a uniform, and pay school fees. [It] has helped me to study in peace and turn my full attention to school.”
- Assalama Alhassane, 7^th grader, Aouderas Middle School

Last year, the community gardens produced 3x the crops and 5x the profit of the year before. This winter, you can help dig two new wells so there’s enough safe drinking water to go around and to support the expansion of two community gardens.  

It is impossible to do well in school or to work a full day when the water you need to survive makes you sick. Access to water also increases access to safe and nutritious food. YOU can help these communities fight thirst, fight hunger, fight for survival.

The rural and nomadic children, women, and families of Niger are willing to work, but first, they need you to make these opportunities a reality.

If you give by January 31st, your gift can help construct 2 new classrooms and a much needed solar-powered study hall for our Agadez Learning Center middle schoolers! One of their favorite things about the center is the electricity, allowing them to “study in the dark.” 9th grade student Hadi says, “normally, when the sun goes down we have to stop studying because there is no light.” Imagine – the only thing holding a student back from success might be their ability to keep studying after sundown.

 - Katherine Kolios, Exectutive Director.