The Nomad Education Project

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The Nomad Education Project
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The Sahel region of West Africa is a
transition zone between the arid Sahara desert to
the north and the more fertile areas to the
south. For nine months during the year it is a
very windy and dry area scattered with scrawny
bushes and skeletal trees. Majority of Niger is
located within the Sahel region.
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• This area is where you will find the Wodaabe,
  among the few surviving
• nomads in the world. They live as they have for
  centuries, moving their
• herds across the Sahel in constant search for
  water and pasture for their
• animals, especially the zebu cattle.

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• The Wodaabe move from place to place with all
  their possessions.

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• As they settle in their temporary
• Home, the women set up
• encampments called suudu,
• small circular areas surrounded
• by thorny branches, within
• which are placed everything they
• own

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• a bed (picture above) , mats, calabashes and
  cooking utensils including the mortar and pestle
  used for the pounding of millet--the cereal that
  supplements the Wodaabe diet.

These possessions have been packed for the
next journey.
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Calabashes are made from the hard-rinded
fruit of the calabash vine. Calabashes have many
uses depending on their size and shape. A few are
used to hold buol , a porridge made of milk and
millet.
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• The Wodaabe
• would set up their
• camps near wells
• that are often 30 to
• 50 meters deep.

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• It takes several hours to give water to the
  herd, from the pulling of the water from the
  well, to carrying the water containers into the
  empty watering troughs where animals wait their
  turn to drink.

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• Due to a lifestyle of constant search for
  pasture for their animals, very few Wodaabe
  children go to school. It has not been part of
  their tradition and they are constantly prone to
  periods of hunger especially when there is a
  drought and they do not have access to millet or
  to water, often they would be forced to sell
  their cattle.

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• CRS/Niger and the Catholic Mission of Maradi
  worked together to create a culturally sensitive
  education alternative for nomad children. In
  order for nomad children to attend school,
  provisions were made to ensure that they have
  enough food to eat and a place to stay while
  their families migrate away from their schools.

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• The need for education for nomad children
• is important. In a country where more than
• 80 of the people cannot read or write,
• the nomads have among the lowest
• school enrollment rates and constantly live
• in acute poverty.

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• Girls would often be kept at home to help cook
  and do housework.

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• Through the project, girls like Gaya are
  offered the opportunity to get nutritious meals,
  to learn and to contribute to the development of
  her people. Gaya is a nine year old Wodaabe girl
  in the village of Boundo Sadji (the well built
  by Sadji) who likes to read and write. She likes
  to sing the song Mes Amis My Friends.

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• Gaya goes to school in a small rectangular hut
  made of millet stalks.

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• There are 17 other children in her school who
  learn reading, writing, French
• (the official language of Niger), among other
  subjects. In the coming months, Gaya
• and her classmates will learn how to care for
  animals through the school herds and
• gardens classes.