Aminata Ouologuem is a teacher and female leader who has started a residence for 60 seventh graders from outlying villages to allow them to attend school in the city of Bandiagara.  Many students from towns and villages can only reach primary schools within walking distance from their homes, and in order to continue their studies beyond sixth grade they must live in larger cities. Many stay with other families in the cities and must either pay or perform a large share of the household work to earn their keep. Others can't find families to stay with and so can't continue their schooling.  Aminata recognized the struggles of these students and identified with them because of the difficulties she herself had faced in getting an education.  Along with her women's association, Amba Obi, she worked to create the "Internat Scolaire," a home in the city for students from villages outside of Bandiagara.  The kids study, play, and work together on chores such as cleaning and irrigating their vegetable garden.  With only one caretaker for supervision, they are amazingly well-behaved and have elected leaders among themselves to help settle disagreements.  Aminata has secured limited funding for the first three years, but the project would be much more sustainable if the Internat could construct its own building and thus avoid rent costs. The City of Bandiagara has agreed to donate a lot for the residence.  The estimate for the building came in at $65,000, and we would love to find a donor organization that could help realize this dream of Aminata and her students. 

see this project's location on a map

 
                    Aminata                                                      The kids of the Internat Scolaire

"These children belong to all of us.  To help a child is to help the nation.  To give food to a child is to let him live.  To give lodging to a child is to protect him from all danger. . . .  To see that my children from the Internat become the leaders of tomorrow--that is my hope." --Aminata Ouologuem