Let little girls rise
Education is a civil rights issue of our time, we must guarantee equal access to education for every little girl in nomad villages. Educating a little girl is to educate an entire nation, on the banks of the Niger River in remote rural nomad villages. Little girls face a lot of difficulties in getting access to quality education.
The caravan to class foundation initiative in partnership with the local none governmental organization North and development gives an education opportunity to little girls in these nomad villages. This opportunity permits these little girls to not just survive but to thrive in the 21st century. The initiative also provides them access to new schools, clothes, food and didactic materials for education. (According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, 62 million girls around the world are not in school.).
Over three days in middle October, I visited the nomad village of Kacondji on the right bank of the Niger River where the caravan to class foundation built a new school in 2015 for the village children. I met the traditional chefs, elders, school leaders, teachers and students in order to discuss the notion of education of little girls in rural nomad areas in the 21st century. Generally in remote northern areas girls come from families under the cycle of poverty so when you explain to their parents the notion of sending little girls to school, they don’t understand because most of the time families are dependent on the daily work of these girls.
Moreover, parents during their childhood never attended any formal school in their entire lives. Girls, however, are confronted with an additional set of obstacles, Early the morning before going to school in nomad villages the little girls are expected to do the majority of day-to-day chores like gathering water and taking care of younger siblings. Many are married off at a young age so families have one less mouth to feed.
“ My family proposed me for my cousin since my birthday ceremony , and they decided later to take me out to school but my mother supported me. she refused the marriage that's why I stay in school. Today, thanks to my mother’s decision, I am still continuing my studies. I would like to finish my studies and be a nurse in order to support my village” said Habsa Abdoulaye a twelve year old girl , resident of the village of Kacondji.
In highly traditional nomad villages on the edge of the Sahara desert parents must choose between eating or sending their kids to school. It’s clear that educating children is not always a family’s No. 1 priority.
“ I live in a family of 3 siblings plus my father and mother. My main task is at our house , generally I miss the first hours of school because of my chores early the morning ” said Agaichatou Mahamane a ten years old girl of the village of Kakondji.
Both these two girls get access today to quality education opportunities thanks to the caravan to class initiative. “Educate a young boy in Timbuktu and he will grow up to provide food for his family. Educate a young girl in Timbuktu and she will grow up to promote education within her family and break the devastating cycle of illiteracy and poverty. This idea is a motivational force moving Caravan to Class forward.” said Barry Hoffner Co Founder of the caravan to class Initiative.
Various issues create obstacles to education for the region’s children. For decades, drought and access to basic nutritional needs has been a constant problem in northern Mali and much of the Sahel. And when the rains do come, many villages are flooded out. Homes are sometimes lost, as well as livestock and grain harvests. Additionally, in highly traditional African societies, children are needed at home and are withheld from school. Children work hard from an early age to support the family. They help with fishing, farming, and selling produce at market. For example, parents of a child from the Bozo tribe will employ their children in the early morning, before dawn, to go and help them fish. After this work, the children, both girls and boys, will then go to school or they may miss school altogether.
Children from Tuareg and Fulani – cattle herding families – are often asked to manage entire herds during the day, moving them back and forth between water and grass. On top of this girls will often do domestic family chores.
“Once our little girls are educated they can be teachers to serve the village schools, they can also educate their own children and family members and serve as facilitators for the villagers, so our kids parents must sent their little girls to school for their own benefit and the benefit of the entire village” said Younoussa Mahamane Maiga , chief of the village of Kacondji.
I have a deep connection to the implementation of little girls’ education on the banks of the Niger river. I believe that all girls around the world deserve a quality education in order to understand the realities of the world and fulfill their full potential for the better of their villages, cities, regions, countries, nations and serve at the end the entire world.
Editor : John H. Sime
