News from Rain for the Sahel and Sahara

School is Out. RAIN's growing scholarship program ended the school year with a celebration of our nearly 200 scholarship students and their achievements. Originally for girls, this USAID-funded program now includes boys. The students are progressing well; a number have entered high school. They receive scholarships and books, are encouraged by volunteer mentors and attend classes in practical skills such as tailoring, knitting, metal working and gardening.

We celebrated the year's end with a party for all and awards for those who excelled.

RAIN's reward for its good work; USAID has extended the scholarship program through the 2010 - 2011 school year.

Adult Literacy. Classes are continuing through the summer for 30 women mentors and other RAIN volunteers who are learning to read and write in Tifinagh (the Tuareg written language) and French. The classes are absolutely joyous as women approach a blackboard and proudly, for the first time in their lives, write their names. They are motivated and progressing well. People walking by stop to ask if they, too, can learn. We plan to expand this program in the fall.

A Child is Never too Young - to feel secure, to learn, to know that she will eat today. In partnership with UNICEF and the Niger government, RAIN will be offering daily preschool classes to 700 nomadic children who have been displaced by the past year's insecurity in the Air Massif of northern Niger. Thousands of nomads, mostly women and children, have been driven from their remote homes by clashes between a protest movement and the Niger military. Without the animals that are their livelihoods, they languish in temporary communities on the fringes of cities such as Arlit, Agadez and Tchirozerine. In

preschool their children will learn basic skills, receive lunch, play and, most importantly, establish positive routines to counteract the stress and hardships of their daily lives. RAIN will recruit parents to be mentors - they will serve as school aids, establish bonds with the children, encourage them. The mentors will be volunteers and will receive food assistance through the program. Including food in school programs and rewarding volunteers with rice are important here in Niger, where food shortages are chronic and where, in 2008, grain prices have doubled.

Food Aid & Vocational Education. This summer RAIN offered food aid AGSP prize recipients in Arlit

and skills training to displaced nomads.With funds granted by MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, we provided much-needed rice and millet to those living in temporary shelters in Arlit. In Agadez a group of women are studying tailoring, a valuable skill in Niger.

Kids Sow and Grow.

Marianne LeVine and Diane Rodden, high school students from the San Francisco Bay area, devoted an independent study program to developing garden lesson plans for Niger students. Marianne and Diane, both fluent in French, are extraordinary. They authored 20 lesson plans for primary grade students, using gardens to teach measurements, mathematics, nutrition, hygiene and more. Diane and Marianne visited Niger in July to review their work with Doulla Ahmid, RAIN's agriculture coordinator.