PROJECTS STARTING-UP ONCE AGAIN... GETTING KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL!

WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS in MALI!

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Now that a large portion of the Malian refugees have returned home to their villages, and a peace agreement has been signed, NomadHope, Adjmor NGO, local Rotary Clubs in California, and Rotary International are restarting our Water, Solar, & Sanitation projects for the Schools outside of Timbuktu!

These projects will enable children to pick up their education where they left off when they fled with their families to the refugee camps in surrounding countries.

We pick up our work again this month, to assure several remote pastoral village schools have clean water, latrines, hand washing programs, and solar lights.

Clean water, latrines, and hand washing programs at school, reduce student illness and absences caused by poor hygiene. Children no longer need to run to the nearest cattle watering station to get a drink and can wash their hands before their daily school meal, and after using the latrines.

Solar lighting at school allows for evening studies, national test preparation, and teachers to change the black board curriculum daily. School buildings are also used in evenings for community and school / education governance meetings, and lighting provides safety and better usability.

Some of the school buildings are now in disrepair, due to this long period without maintenance; and the sands continued, in the students' absence, to  push against the school perimeter walls that we built in previous years. Some buildings need only be cleaned up, desks repaired, and the sand pushed back, while others are no longer safe for students and they must use temporary shelter, until repair funding can be obtained.

School building just needs a good cleaning and a few repairs.

 
 

School in session, using temporary structure.

Thus several schools are being held in temporary thatch hangers, as other NGO's work to repair or rebuild the structures. Therefore, rather than build a permanent water pipeline and tap stand to these schools as we had planned,.we will purchase donkeys and carts with portable water containers to provide clean drinking and hand washing water to these students and teachers. While the donkeys are not working for the students and teachers, they can be $ leased $ out for local work... like hauling building materials, fetching water for remote families, and other hauling needs, ...thus generating petty cash for any repairs needed to latrines, solar, wells, and donkey carts, over time.

Some of the village water reservoirs are in need of repairs, so we will be assisting with these to assure a source of clean water for the village and school.

Water reservoir needs a new platform.

The millet machines we  installed previously are in disrepair and missing parts, and now due to the drought and lost herds, the local women do not currently have the ability to pay for use of these wonderful millet machines in their villages.  As always in the Sahara, one blocked path, only forces us to find another route, which typically leads to a better set of solutions for the present situation.

Assessing the value of the millet machine parts remaining.

The Tuareg villagers are now in a period of family and herd re-establishment, working to get their children back into school and establishing herds of goats, cattle, donkeys, and camels to be used for trading for food and supplies. Therefore, we have decided to sell the millet machines and parts in order to purchase goats and donkeys for the school management Committees. The Committees will $ loan / lease $ these animals to families of students in need, who will pay back the loan with the loaned animal's offspring. The school can also sell off goats for cash as needed, to repair water, latrine, and solar installations.




Herds need to be replenished.

We are working hard to get back on track and look forward to your continued support!

PLEASE DONATE for these projects by clicking on the DONATE button in the right hand margin of this BLOG.