Let every child’s light shine: Inauguration of” The Bantam Turtle School “
The Caravan to Class Foundation builds schools in the remote northern Timbuktu region of Mali in West Africa. The nomad village of Bantam near the fabled desert city of Timbuktu, recently got its first primary school thanks to the Caravan to Class Foundation . The school is built on the banks of the Niger River.
Education is a civil rights issue. We must guarantee equal opportunity for every child in Mali, and that means every child is guaranteed access to quality education. Access to education will also help our young people contribute to the development of their villages, their regions, and their country. In the future, it will empower them to serve the entire world.
Mr. Barry Hoffner , Founder of Caravan to Class, has operations in the United States and in Mali. He works with a local non-governmental organization based in Timbuktu, called North and Development to bring education opportunities to the remote north of Mali, specifically to nomad villages on the edge of Sahara. Mr Hoffner’s goal is nothing less than achieving literacy for every child in the Timbuktu region. Caravan to Class provides children with clothes and food so that every single child on the banks of the Niger River has the opportunity to not just survive, but to thrive. On this arid landscape on the southern edge of the Sahara, children face great difficulties in getting access to education, especially now that the north of Mali has been so impacted by the civil war that began in 2012.
It is difficult for the government to extend its reach into a region convulsed by religious and ethnic conflict. Various issues create obstacles to education resources 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.
The caravan to class initiative promotes education in these remote rural nomad villages that are land locked, poor, arid, difficult of access and abandoned by the government. It’s thanks to the initiative that kids of this nomad village will shine and reach their full potential and will be the future of their village.
Since 2016, Caravan to Class has been working on of the construction of the primary school of Bantam, with the hard work of the local non governmental North and Development. The school, born on the banks of Nige, serves ther nomad village of Bantam, where students and kids are eager to learn and reach their full potential. This year for the Inauguration of the Bantam “Turtle” school, the founder of the Caravan to Class Initiative traveled from the United States of America to the nomad villages with his elder son, Ben Hoffner .
According to Barry Hoffner, Founder of the Caravan to class Initiative: "Seeing the greetings from the village of Bantam, the flag-raising ceremony, the skits put on in good French by the students, and, of course, the brand new beautiful school of Bantam-Turtle, I thought to myself ‘On this day, I feel like the luckiest man in the world’. It was even more special to have my elder son, Benjamin with me. I thought to myself, ‘it is amazing how something so basic as the ability of children to go to school" continues to be a challenge in so many villages around Timbuktu.’ It gives even increased motivation to continue to fight for this basic human right on behalf of this children."
In the fire of the war zone, in a religious and ethnic conflict zone, in a place where most westerners think that the fabled desert city of Timbuktu has become a no man’s land, the courage, the commitment, the motivation, the will to help and to show nomad grassroots communities their support in the fire of war, Mr. Barry Hoffner and Ben Hoffner make the difference and they are the change for these nomad grassroots communities by bringing education opportunities and letting kids rise.
The day of the inauguration of the new school of Bantam was marked by happiness and joy of all inhabitants of this nomad village hidden of the banks of the Niger. This joy and happiness was shown by the sound of the melody of traditional musical instruments and the dances of young men and women including elders of the village. During the warm reception of Mr Barry Hoffner along the Niger River.
I have been covering during these last two years the Caravan to Class Initiative as an adviser in education. The great image I captured from a canoe was of local populations singing, dancing their traditional songs, wearing their most beautiful clothes to celebrate the future of their children because if you get a school in the middle of nowhere it’s the future. According to the chef of Village of Bantam, Mr Aliou Abdoulaye: “Today I have a strong emotion because I have always dreamed about a school for my village, this dream became true thanks to the Caravan to Class Initiative”
Despite the current political-security crisis in Timbuktu, on this single day local population of Bantam forgot about all their difficulties living in a war zone. They only celebrate the happiness that their village got a new school thanks to the Caravan to Class Initiative. According to the Director of the new school of Bantam, Mr. Abdoul Karim Ag Ibrahim “we thank so much the Caravan to Class Initiative which has already shown us their support helping with our main needs which are: the building of a school including its equipment, didactic materials for students, and the scholarship for teachers to encourage them in their hard work. Finally, they also provide kids clothes and water for the school.”
The students of the new school of Bantam have made something that captivated the heart and the soul of all the participants of the inauguration. The students have made a sketch explaining to their parents the importance of sending children to school , the importance of education and how they are eager to learn and they launch this message “ Dear parents please send us to school because we are the future of this country “. the participants present at that moment really understood this strong message from these nomad kids eager to be the change in their village and bring change in the future. I have a deep passion for promoting education on the banks of the Niger because I believe that the future belongs to the young new generation.
Editor: John. H. Sime
