Photos from the Field Feb. 2006
I arrived in Niger in January, 2006 to lead trips to the projects, see how they are doing, find new funding and visit the desert. Here is what I found.
The school we opened in November at Aboye is in full swing. The children know the alphabet and how to count to 60 in French. They are learning addition and subtraction. The letters on the side of the school above are their attempts to spell Aboye (BAY) their locale, Sefan (SFN) their teacher, and Ikenan (IKAN) their chief.
The cook for the school at Aboye.
This amazing class worked and earned enough money to buy a camel, 3 goats, two sheep and a donkey for the nomads in Niger.
A nomad with his spear and internet jacket and a nomad on his camel with a sat phone. Some of the amazing contrasts of this world....
The finished well at Ehalgene. It has more water than any in the region.
The women at Ehalgene had prepared camel bags as examples for us to try to sell in the US. They did a great job, but made way more than the five we had ordered.
At our meeting they asked for us to finance the reopening of the school which has been closed now for two years because of lack of money. We need $4500 for annual school support. The also asked for a cart to help with the construction of their houses, and a door and mouse poison for their cereal bank.
The cereal bank at Imalole is being built by the women. They also need mouse poison and a cart.
At Alow's camp the women also prepared camel bags for sale. Their quality wasn't great although their willingness was. We bought the bags, but decided to ask some expert Tuareg women artisans to come and teach them
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The well for Alow's camp is progressing.
At Peroji's well we saw his sons Motara and Juuti working very hard to draw the small amount of water that the well contained. We were very discouraged that the well would not be sufficient for the school we planned to build. Motara and Juuti have been in the bottom of the 200 foot deep well digging it out to try to find more water. We decided to encourage the community by building the temporary school which we had promised, right away.
We visited the projects with friends from America. Above Jill Sorel with Aghali, the chief, at the school of Imalole. Jill having seen the hard work the women were doing there committed to look for funds to open the school which has never been opened and to dig a well nearby. Our humanitarian tours are working!! To see what they are about click here.
The Wodaabe kids are irresistable. Here with Nicola Powell and Jana La Sorte.
The Brian family helping sort embroidery thread for the Wodaabe co-operative. They are trying to find markets for the co-op products in the US. Thank you Brad, Claire and Leslie.
They also brought 100 kilos of vitamins which we distributed to dispensaries in Ejarghane and Ingall and to 10 nomadic camps.
Nesboune, the grandmother of the four orphans with her is raising them because her two daughters died in childbirth from a lack of iron. We sent a plea to the Brians who brought 150 bottles of iron tablets which we distrbuted to dozens of remote camps
We visited three new wells completed at Awedenine. Three more are needed to water their gardens. Here are Sidi, Leslie and Abdullah the proud new cemented well owner.
Cereal Bank at Awedenine.
Back at Perojis camp we found a new member of the women's co-operative, except he isn't a woman. Janare, a young man is an excellent embroiderer so we decided to give him some work. He completed it beautifully.
The school building was completed and the desks in place. Now we await the arrival of the teacher. After I got back to California, in April I got word that the teacher had arrived and there are 51 new students. We already need to increase our classroom size. Even better Peroji's kids got to water in the well, which is now adequate for the school and the new community we hope to build. They want to call it OJAI.
Please help us continue this work.
