The three weeks of standstill the coup d’etat provoked have not kept the 2015-2016 academic year and our projects in Rimkieta from getting off to a good start!
This year, in addition to the Maternelle, the literacy program for mothers, the scholarships, the reintegration of street kids and the education of unschooled girls, we’ve unveiled a new education project: university scholarships.
Class of P4
But let’s take things one at a time:
The Maternelle, with its 300 children, having gotten past the first weeks of tears and worry that the 100 newcomers in P3 go through, is once again in full swing. From my office I have the privilege of hearing the teachers teach the smallest children to speak their first words in French, to do their first sums and even to voice their first recitations and songs. On Thursdays, the children’s’ mothers arrive enthusiastic for their literacy course. This afternoon is special to the women because they devote it to themselves – a while to share their daily struggles while also learning to read, write, add, subtract and improve their family’s and their own nutrition and health.
The new girls of the fourth class
There are eighty girls in the education of unschooled girls program this year: sixty from the first three programs, who are already enrolled in school, and 20 new girls from the fourth class, who will spend this first year with us at FAR. Over the course of the academic year, we will witness that marvelous change in the new girls when they pass from not knowing what they like – because no one has ever asked their opinion about anything – to being able to prefer one color over another, discern different flavors in food, and express their joys, fears and worries.
Meeting with the parents of the “street kids”
And what can I say about the street kids? This year we hit the 100-student mark! Along with Abdoulaye who’s staying with us another year in FAR along with the 15 new students from the 8th class, we have enrolled 65 children in school, and 18 are receiving training in different shops: welders, mechanics, tailors, etc. There’s even one boy enrolled in a special center for educating unschooled boys. This is undoubtedly the most arduous of all the projects because it deals with boys whose basic family structures are very fragile, which causes them to constantly look for an out on the street. And that’s where we come in – trying to help them find that out in school or in a training workshop.
And last but not least, the scholarships, which remain one of FAR’s basic “services” that are so necessary to the neighborhood. Every year there is the same band of mothers who practically sleep on FAR’s doorstep to ask for a scholarship for their children. This year, 477 children from Rimkieta y Zongo’s neediest families have received scholarships.
Band of mothers waiting for their turn
And as I was telling you, university scholarships are this year’s new venture. This new FAR project will add continuity to the school scholarships. The first scholarship (I beg your forgiveness, but it had to be a woman!) has gone to Balguissa, who has started her studies in agricultural engineering in the ISSTA (Advanced Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology). Of 9 students who finished their schooling last year, of whom 5 were boys and 4 were girls, only 2 passed their BAC exams that give access to the university. The other candidate, Ismael, is a young man with serious hearing problems, who FAR is helping to see if he can get help with his hearing problems before going to university, so that he might face the challenges there in better conditions.
Entrance to the FAR in Rimkieta
Behind every new project that FAR takes on, there is a serious study of its viability. The scholarship project was no exception. In accordance with our motto “to keep up more than to take up,” we should be very cautious with every new step we take. We have a lot of hope for this new project because we are convinced that true change can only come through educating young people. It’s not a stock phrase; it’s a truth. And thanks to the help of so many sponsors of the foundation, we can be here in Rimkieta from nursery school through primary and secondary school, all the way to the university!!