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Spring 2013 fatoumata close up

6.13.13
RAIN partners with women and girls in Saharan Africa to create access to education and the ability to generate incomes. At the heart of these programs is the devotion of illiterate nomadic women to ensure better lives for the next generation. The women and girls forge bonds of love and support as they learn and earn together throughout the girls' school years.

Fatoumata Diawara is a new voice from Mali melding traditional music with folk and rock to create her own sound in a joyous mix of songs about love and empowerment. She responded to Islamic extremism in her country by bringing together 40 musicians to record the album Voices United for Mali calling for peace and harmony. The concert begins with The Randy Armstrong World Fusion Trio with Jose Duque and Volker Nahrmann. Get inspired with us at this special engagement!  Purchase tickets here!
Trio






RAIN thanks all our Sponsors
for support of our
annual event & concert!

Mentors raise and sell goats to support their programs. Below, RAIN staff member Halima is checking out a doe belonging to mentors in Akokan that is now a dam with a kid.
 
EDUCATE GIRLS, DEVELOP THE WORLD 
Did you know that a girl with a primary school education
marries later and has fewer, healthier children? And....

==> When women and girls earn incomes, they reinvest 90% into their families. 
==> Women account for nearly two-thirds of the 785 million illiterate adults in the world. 
==> Providing a girl with one extra year of education boosts her eventual wages by 10 to 20%. 
==> Increasing the number of girls with secondary education by 1% boosts a country's annual per capita income growth by .3% -- substantial in countries like Niger with an annual growth around 3%.
(World Bank) 

RAIN has brought mentoring programs to 13 rural schools across Niger. In Arlit, our dedicated mentors support the program through goat herding. In Mari, school enrollment rose from 63 to 223. In Gougaram, Akokan and Mari the first girls ever have graduated primary school and continued to secondary education. Mentored girls have shown to be 20% more likely to return to school each year and to delay marriage and childbirth.


Mentoring: Dedication in Action 
Fatima Illias is a student in RAIN's Iferouane mentoring program. Her mother is a widow who, despite struggling to earn enough to feed her children, enrolls them all in school. Fatima's mother Tanalher recently related to RAIN staff about how her daughter's mentor Assalama Attaher is supporting Fatimata throughout the school year. 
 
Assalama Attaher is a midwife and RAIN mentor. She is devoted to her village and known for her outstanding services to women. Though Assalama is poor, her family enjoys a relative level of security. She has chosen to further support the children she mentors, including Fatima, by funding their school expenses and providing food and other necessities.

"I make this gift to my students to encourage them to stay in school and work hard. I call upon all the women in Iferouane to do good for their children, and for all the children in the community." - Assalama Attaher, with Fatima (in blue) and another of her mentored girls. 
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Forging partnerships with rural and nomadic desert peoples of West Africa
PO Box 1503, Portsmouth NH 03802/56 Middle Street, Portsmouth NH 03801
1 + 603-371-0676 
www.rain4sahara.org