DOCUMENT: DESERT SCHOOLS--LES ECOLES DU DESERT

Presented by its US Engaged Partner,

TAZZLA INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY

313 South Lamer Street, Burbank, CA 91506
(818) 753-1090

The organization of OVD TEDHILT (Life and Development) was created in 1999 as a non-governmental Tuareg entity (NGO) of Niger, pursuant to the Peace Accords between the Government of Niger and autochthonous groups of "Tuareg" communities known as Union of Force and Resistance. Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity, headed by Moroccan-born Helene Hagan, a member of the international Amazigh (Berber) community through various affiliations, became the US Engaged partner of OVD in 1999, with the goal of aiding and supporting the grass-root efforts of OVD TEDHILT.

Tuareg communities of this sub-Saharan state of Niger are one of the components of the larger Amazigh (Berber) nation with a vast territory extending from the Oasis of Egypt, and Libya to the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara and sub-Saharan regions, called Tamazgha.

The groups who people the territory of Tamazgha are called "Imazighen," (also known to the international community as "Berbers") while the appellation of "Tuaregs" is an external label unknown to the Niger people who call themselves Kel Tamasheq. In Niger, they number approximately 1.5 million. The majority of them occupy the northern region of the Air desert and mountains and their main center is Agadez, a city located at 985 kms north of Niamey, the official Capital of Niger.

These indigenous, autochthonous people, the Kel Tamasheq, are the heirs to a rich traditional culture, and follow a nomadic lifestyle. In camps, the writing of their ancient alphabet, the Tifinagh alphabet, is transmitted in characters traced on the sand by the women. The Tifinagh alphabet has been dated among the first known alphabets of the world. It is found on rock art of the Air Mountains, reflecting a continuous ancient heritage and occupation of the area by these nomadic groups.

Before the arrival of the French colonial power in Africa, this "Tuareg" territory was a single continuous expanse. The creation of frontiers and nation states such as Niger, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Libya, and Algeria was a consequence of French colonization.

The colonization of this region resulted in the cutting up of the territory occupied by the Tuaregs, dividing the land into morsels and arbitrarily allocating segments of a single homogeneous people to each portion. The people were distributed through five distinct states, and an artificial separation was created between groups of a same language and culture.

In 1960, when independence from France was obtained in these countries, those who took power were the sedentary populations educated and trained by France. Tuareg communities of nomadic lifestyle were left aside at the political, economical and social levels in the new structures of power and state formation. In Niger, thirty years of total disenfranchisement and victimization, characterized by a total absence of political, economic, social and cultural rights, resulted in armed rebellion.

In November 1997, final Peace Accords were signed between the Tuareg Resistance and the Government of Niger. These Peace Accords stipulate first a process of decentralization of authority, secondly an integration of veterans of the struggle in all the segments of governmental offices, and thirdly a social and economic re-insertion of all Tuareg elements of the population of Niger.

A group of veterans of this armed struggle created this organization, with the goal of ameliorating Tuareg life conditions throughout the country.

OVD’s vision of development starts with the education of Tuareg children in camps near pastures. This vision includes the preservation of the Tamasheq language and of its alphabet, the Tifinagh alphabet, and of all the cultural aspects of the Tuareg traditions.

Historically, the original habitat where these Tuareg groups developed a self-sufficient mode of subsistence was subjected to gradual and intensive degradation following the creation of foreign uranium mining concerns and industrial complexes. Essentially, the very environment necessary to the well being of these nomadic groups underwent substantial pollution, radiation, and degradation.

Moreover, these foreign mining interests began to import a labor force from outside groups from other parts of Niger, displacing the autochthonous groups whose livelihood depended upon pastures that were obliterated. Indeed, today, nothing grows any longer around this zone of exploitation.

The overall direct impact of this uranium mining has dire consequences upon all levels of life in that zone. Uranium is extracted in the open. On the periphery of this area, there are autochthonous groups whose wealth once consisted of cattle herds, now decimated. In order to survive, they now rely on the cultivation of small gardens for food production. Non-treated waters are released into the environment by the mining industry and used by these neighboring groups in the production of survival crops, with lethal consequences

Apart from the direct consequences of ubiquitous radiation, illnesses unknown before have begun to take their toll. A high rate of infantile mortality, pre-natal difficulties for pregnant women, and a number of new fatal diseases prevail in the area.

Despite the enormous gains benefiting the French mining societies and the State of Niger, no expenditure on their part has provided any sanitation, health-care, or clinics for these displaced Tuareg groups.

To conclude, the enormous amount of suffering, poverty, and diseases imposed upon the original inhabitants of this region has not been compensated or remedied by one iota of social conscience or material help in the form of health-care, education, or social welfare by either foreign investors or state authorities.

This project started in 1997, and is implemented today by OVD TEDHILT with the help of vigorous and dedicated young people who work in the region and the two offices of OVD in Niamey and Agadez.

OVD has been instrumental in the construction of thirteen schools near pastures, taking in charge the children of nomadic family as boarders, whenever it is possible. The schools begin as straw-huts near wells where groups camp temporarily. Whenever help has been provided, permanent structures are constructed, housing a classroom or two, a dorm, a kitchen, and a storeroom. Gardens are also cultivated on the premises -- children are taught gardening skills--to provide fresh nutrition, and a herd of goats is maintained at the school. Each morning, children are taught to milk goats. Periodically, a goat will also provide fresh meat.

Straw-hut facilities near wells and pasture migration paths teach children during the day, and children are recuperated by their parents in the evening, or sometimes upon their return at the water point, which maybe days. They need to be entirely fed in any case. In the concrete structures, they are boarders, and go back to their camps during scheduled holidays. They are completely taken in charge. They sleep on floor-mats, and as the weather can get very cold in the desert, need warm blankets. At the present time, it is not rare for two or three children to share the same blanket, as there are not enough to accommodate the growing number of students. As of today, the total number of Tuareg children attending these schools is 386, and increasing in numbers. See the description of individual schools below.

Education at these schools follows the regular curriculum of other schools of Niger, with the addition of the features of gardening and herding mentioned above. Teachers (90% of them are Tuaregs) are paid by the government. Children are taught in French (the official language of Niger) as other children of Niger are, and in their own language of Tamasheq which is the only language spoken in their families, and the only language known to them when they first enter these pasture schools.

1. School Nutrition Program--Food, clothing, and blankets are an urgent need.

The immediate and urgent needs stated by OVD TEDHILT are nutrition, clothing, reed mats and blankets for approximately four hundred children. In some instances, where permanent structures do not exist and schools are a simple straw-hut near a well, children sleep in the open air, two or three under a blanket, sometimes with no mats available, and it can get pretty cold in the desert. These needs are more detailed below, school by school.

2. Furniture.

In addition to these urgent needs, the Desert Schools need furniture (benches and blackboards) as presently three children sit at desks made for two, and some schools simply do not have any school benches or seats, and also lack blackboards.

3. School supplies for all thirteen schools.

4. Gardening tools are needed.

5. Goats.

The purchase of goats in order to renew the herds, and provide some schools with a minimum herd, which they do not have yet, is included in immediate needs. So far, Tazzla Institute has provided enough money for the purchase of 43 goats, through the help of a small concert in San Francisco (Tamazgha group). Each goat costs $15.00. An individual donor to the Institute also provided for the partial cost of a well. These contributions have been very minimal indeed.

6. Medical

First Aid kits are provided for some schools. Others do not even have this basic first aid.

A program of visits by nurses and doctors needs to be instituted, and a more complete pharmacy maintained at each school. Here, a special appeal must go out to international humanitarian organizations of doctors and nurses to provide this type of help.

SCHOOL BY SCHOOL DESCRIPTION OF NEEDS.

1. SCHOOL OF SEKERAT. It is, as all schools, a mixed (boys and girls) school. There are twenty-three (23) fully boarded students. There are two classes, one permanent construction, and one temporary straw-hut. There is a dorm, and a store, made of traditional materials, no wood employed. There is a herd of eleven goats (not enough.) There is a cemented well. The garden is not yet developed. There is no First Aid kit available.
2. SCHOOL OF EKRARAN. It is a boarding school for fourteen (14) students, boys and girls, with one class (cement), one dorm, one store (traditional non-wood structure,) one hen-house, and a First Aid Kit. There is no garden available yet.
3. SCHOOL OF IKALAN-ZAGALAN - It is a boarding school for 43 students. It has one class, one dorm, one store (traditional structure.) No well, no herd no pharmacy or First aid Kit.
4. SCHOOL OF TEGOUNOUTE - It is a boarding school for forty-nine (49) children. There is one class, one dorm, one store, no garden, no well, no herd, and no pharmacy.
5. SCHOOL OF TARENKITE - It is a non-boarding school of twelve (12) children. Its one class is a straw-hut, and it has no dorm. It urgently needs to be transformed into a boarding school.
6. SCHOOL OF MIZENE - The school serves 40 students. Classes are held in a straw-hut, and the dorm is also a straw-hut. Help is needed to provide better over-all facilities, and essential needs are not met.
7. SCHOOL OF AMAN N TADENT - One straw-hut class, for thirty-six children; the school has no dorm. Same urgent needs exist as for School of Tarenkite.
8. SCHOOL OF AJAWADAL - This is a boarding school for fifty-three students (53) with two classes in cement structures, one dorm, one store.
9. SCHOOL OF INJEGRANE - Boarding school for nineteen children (19) with one class, one dorm.
10. SCHOOL OF TIDGART - This school has no facilities other than a straw-hut for thirty-three (33) children. All needs extremely urgent.
11. SCHOOL OF TAGHZA - A newly opened school for 27 children offering a single straw-hut class.
12. SCHOOL OF ANOU NAGAROUF - One class in cement for nineteen (19) children and one dorm.
13. SCHOOL OF TAKARACHE - It is also a newly opened school with one classroom and one dorm for eighteen (18) children.

Total number of children served by the program: 386. It is expected that the next school year will bring twice as many children to these ill-equipped facilities.

To contribute to this project, you are encouraged to buy Tuareg jewelry provided by OVD, sold in our Boutique at extraordinary low prices (100% of money collected sent to Desert Schools). Click here.