AACDP

I have known Sidi Mohammad since 2005, when the AACDP began selling Tuareg crafts to raise money for his non profit, Takaout, that benefits his small group of semi nomadic  Tuareg. It has been a struggle to create a new way of life in a permanent location. Drought, famine, war and  government disapproval all contributed to a hard existence.

 When he learned of a group of parentless young children in a nearby encampment he asked me to start this campaign. In his words:

"In the village where my mother was born there is a group of 50 young children, many of them orphans and all of them without means to pay for education. My heart ached to see their inadequate living conditions and lack of any schooling. I want to find a way to build a boarding school for these young ones so I have asked my long time friend from the US, who runs a small non profit for disabled children in Zambia, to start a campaign for this project.

We have made temporary structures of straw mats, but here, in the Tenere desert, there is a lot of sand, wind and bad weather. These basic constructions do not last long. Proud of my Tuareg origins and wanting to help a generation and a whole people to improve their living conditions and to offer them a better future, I would like you to accompany me to realize a dream: to build a brick school to ensure that village children have access to an education and, in fact, have a future.“