Into the Bush in Search of Education

An amazing trip to the region of M'Baye Awa yesterday. For many years we have known a local cobbler who over the years has become a friend and an inspiration. Cheikh, in turn, claims that we have inspired him. As he learned of and watched our work with Maison de la Gare over the years, he began to save his money toward building a school and supporting teachers in his home village. After many discussions with my Dad (over shoe repairs) about how education can provide hope and change everything for a child such as a forced begging talibe, Cheikh had become a believer. His idea is simple. If education is accessible locally, families will not be tempted to send their boys to cities to become talibes. Indeed, this is precisely one of the levers of change my daughter, Rowan identified in her recent project for the Oxford Global Challenge of mapping the talibe system. And he says when I asked him about the education of girls he was inspired to ensure their education opportunities also. Impressed with Cheikh's dedication to providing opportunity, my Dad and I regularly contributed to his dream, and eventually the first school was built. Then, when the ongoing challenge of funding teachers proved beyond Cheikh's means, we introduced him to Issa to bring this unique project under Maison de la Gare's wing.

We left Saint Louis at 9am. But, it soon became clear that we should have left much earlier. One hour down the well paved highway to Louga,  Then, a left turn inland to the town of Dahra Djolloff, supposedly a 34 km drive on a very badly potholed road. Although we drove carefully so as not to join the other flat tired vehicles along our route, the hours surely amounted to far more distance than was estimated. Along the way were herds of dromedaries and as many donkeys and goats as holes in the road. We were told the roads usually get repaired just before elections. So, it will be a while.

Not long after Darha Diolloff the "paved" road ended. And, not too long after that we cut off the main road onto a dirt track leading through the desert in a North easterly direction (I think). This part of the country is referred to as the bush. The first school we arrived at  was in the village of Dingelli. It had 28 students, including 4 girls. In this particular village, apparently girls marry as young as 12 or 13. So, most do not bother with school. Maison de la Gare has recently become involved  with a long term project here to try to convince parents to send their girls to school, and to help to obtain birth certificates so these kids can get National identity cards and thus someday have the option of continuing past primary school, which is not an option without papers.

About an hour past Dingelli we came to a water well. This well served an area of many square kilometres. Most villages do not have water sources on site and the women walk or drive donkey carts to collect water for their villages. We stopped at one well where two women were collecting water in traditional containers and inner tubes of tires. The ladies at the well we stopped at had babies strapped to their backs, and had travelled six kilometres to arrive at the well.

Collecting water can be nearly a full time job for the women of villages in the bush. Women also collect the firewood and prepared the food, but collecting water can take the most time and effort. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to see for myself how all consuming and difficult the collection of water can be for the people in this area. Particularly given that when I return to Canada at the end of this week I will be leading a local "Walk for Water" to raise awareness of the importance of water management issues and scarcity in places like those I visited while in Africa, and to 

raise money for a We Charities water project.

It must have been about half an hour later that we approached the area of M'Baye Awa. We visited three more local schools, built by the locals to provide opportunity for their children, as no public schools existed within many hours drive. And, the fastest mode of transportation around here is donkey cart. Most people walk. Kids were also in class at the second school we visited, at the village of Thiatgale. The buildings were constructed of cut wooden poles and grass walls. Apparently they suffer significant damage during the rainy season and are then repaired or rebuilt. Or not, depending on the means of the villagers at the time. At this school a welcoming committee of all the village mothers awaited us. We were a tremendous curiosity to this very isolated community. Of the 31 students in this school 12 are girls. And only one child in the school has papers, a girl. Many of the students in this school walk for hours to get here. They know education is important, possibly their only hope for something better. The key for any of these kids to continue past primary school will be obtaining birth certificates and papers. Most do not have them because not only is a fee involved in obtaining them, but a very long journey to register the birth. It will be an on-going challenge to convince parents of the future benefits of registering their children at birth, given the cost and effort involved.

Life in these remote villages is hard. Most women give birth at home, or on donkey carts during the long journey to hospitals. The maternal death rate is high. After the rainy season food is more abundant but at this time of the year, at the start of summer food is more scarce, and the signs of malnourishment were apparent. The distance to travel to obtain water contributes to life's many challenges here. When there is no education available, what else is there but to marry young, start a family and continue the cycle. Some boys are sent to daaras in the cities to be talibes, although this practice is diminishing considerably here since the schools were built locally. Our guide, Our friend Cheikh Diallo explained that education will help these kids to expect and to actively seek better for themselves. Education will enable change to happen here.

Another half hour journey and a few wrong turns later we arrived at the village of Medina Alpha. At this school there are 5 boys and 23 girls. This is the first of the four schools that has been planned to be constructed to be a solid walled 

school that will withstand the elements, and the leaders and parents of this village have embraced the hope offered by education. It is run as a modern school, all classes are taught in French. All the children here have papers, as this was the first school that the teachers, Cheikh Diallo, and Maison de la Gare focused on. They are currently working on trying to repatriate the boys of this village back from the cities where they have been sent to be begging talibes, a realistic hope now that true education is available locally. 

The last school we visited, at Belel Douba, sadly, no longer exists. A grass walled school like two of the others, it was soon destroyed when the teacher stopped attending the school. It did not take long for the abandoned building to be reclaimed by the elements. This school required a fee of about $3 per month per child, and when a critical mass of parents could no longer pay, the teacher stopped coming.  Meanwhile the children of this village wait for a new teacher while the parents have begun to cut poles to replace the school building. 43 children have had their education suspended, 19 girls and 24 boys. The villagers here hold out hope that Maison de la Gare can make something happen for their children.  

We finished the tour with a visit to our friend, Cheikhs own village, Oura Souene. As usual, there is no water source here and the women walk 2 kilometres each way daily to collect water. Bt the time we had finished a feast in honour of our visit and had met all of Cheikh's family, we knew we would not make it back to Saint Louis before dark. But, we did reach the "paved" road before the sun set.  As we climbed out of the vehicle after 10 pm we all reflected on our own good fortune to have such ready access to water and the other necessities of life, and above all, to education, and thus to opportunity.