Sitting at the southern edge of the Sahara desert, Sabon Gida is a small village in central Niger about 450 km from the capital which we, Kristen Patterson & Amy Tekié, called home during our Peace Corps services in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Several kilometers from the nearest road, it’s a place where you can eat every meal with friends, watch the powerful windstorms come in for miles over the open horizon, and walk through the millet fields to buy spices at the Tuesday market. The village is also fairly unique as it is shared by Hausa and Fulani ethnic communities. We lived there at different times, but we were both embraced and deeply changed by the Sabon Gida community and our close friends there – especially their warmth, generosity and perspectives on life.

Unfortunately, children in Sabon Gida currently don’t have enough classrooms to attend school, and the classrooms they do have are not in good condition.

The first school in the village was built in 2000 with the support of the Peace Corps and the community, and two of the children in those first classes are now adult teachers who are teaching the next generation! Unfortunately, as attendance has increased, the school has outgrown its buildings. One of the classrooms collapsed in the intense rains in 2021, and although the community has built additional classrooms out of local materials like straw and millet stalks, these need to be rebuilt every year after the harvest, delaying the start of school each year and losing precious learning time.

We recently submitted a grant request to Friends of Niger (FON) to build a new cement school that will last for years to come, complete with desks, chalkboards, and extra ventilation for the hot climate! If successful, the FON grant would contribute $5,000 towards the cost of the school construction. We are seeking donations from friends and family to raise an additional $8,300 to cover the rest of the school construction costs. The building project will be managed by Tagaz Espoir, a a trusted, well-run Nigerien NGO that can work with village leaders to oversee the project and ensure quality. We have also selected a mason who understands the specific building codes and requirements for safe schools.

In 2022, 167 children were enrolled in school in the village; 122 Hausa and 45 Fulani children. Currently, for traditional classes in French, there is 1 cement classroom, 1 traditional brick classroom, and 3 straw classrooms. For the classes taught in a mix of French and Fulfulde, there are 2 straw classrooms. For three years since the brick walls on the straw classrooms collapsed, the students haven’t had an adequate place to learn.

Niger has been a stable democracy for many years, despite ongoing challenges of food insecurity and, increasingly, the negative impacts of climate change (to which Nigeriens have contributed almost nothing; there is still no electricity nor running water in Sabon Gida). Nigeriens are welcoming, generous, and tolerant. In late July, there was a coup d’etat and the elected President was replaced by a small group of military leaders. We don’t know how things will play out – the US and other Western countries are keen to restore the President, while neighboring countries like Mali and Burkina Faso support the new leaders.

Any funding that we are able to raise beyond the $8,300 for the school will go to providing cash transfers to vulnerable families in Sabon Gida prior to the start of the next hunger season in July 2024. The period of July, August, and September is typically the lean or “hunger” season in Niger, as many families run out of food from the prior year’s harvest while waiting for the current crops to finish growing before the harvest. Unfortunately, the 2023 October harvest was not sufficient due to poor rains, and many families will likely not have enough food to last the entire year. The trade sanctions related to the coup, which have a direct negative impact on rural Nigeriens will likely make the 2024 hunger season even worse, impacting people’s ability to feed their families.

We are in touch with our friends there, and they are full of grace and goodwill despite their difficult situation. In the Nigerien economy, a little goes a long way. If you'd like to make the futures brighter for the children in Sabon Gida, please join us in giving what you can.