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  • Sponsor Students
  • Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life
  • Cataract Mission
  • Motorcycle Repair Training
  • Traditional Birth Attendant Training
  • Drill the Well for Tamesna
  • Buy an animal for a nomad
  • Buy Jewelry
  • Sponsor a Matrone
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The NOMAD Foundation

seeking to balance cultural tradition...with economic opportunity

  • Home
  • Current Causes
    • Sponsor Students
    • Sponsor a Matrone
    • Buy an animal for a nomad
    • Drill the Well for Tamesna
    • Traditional Birth Attendant Training 2020
    • Motorcycle Repair Training
    • Cataract Mission
    • Nomad Gal Jewelry
  • Projects
    • Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life
    • Water
      • Wells
    • Food
      • Agricultural Development
      • Cereal Banks
    • Health
      • Medical Clinic
      • Traditional birth attendant and Healthcare Training
    • Education
      • Boarding School
      • Solar Fabrication and Installation
      • Schools
    • Work
      • Earthbag Building
      • Solar Fabrication and Installation
      • Women’s Co-ops
      • Herds
    • Mali projects
  • About
    • About the Nomad Foundation
    • Leslie Clark – Founder
    • Sidi Mamane – Niger Representative
    • Press
    • Nomad Board of Directors
    • Accomplishments
    • Awards and Grants
    • Friends and Partners
    • About Niger
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About

In search of pasture, the nomadic Tuareg and Wodaabe of Niger, roam the Sahara desert. Largely ignored and unassisted, the inhabit the most desolate part of a destitute country ranked the worst place on earth to be a mother and child, and the poorest country in the world.

The NOMAD Foundation has worked for 25 years in Niger helping the nomads support themselves using expertise that has sustained them for centuries, while adding new opportunities to help them survive the effects of modernization, political instability and global warming.

We focus on five essentials:

HEALTH

WORK

EDUCATION

FOOD

WATER

These are now available to all nomads in one location on the annual migration route at

THE TAMESNA CENTER FOR NOMADIC LIFE

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It is often necessary to adapt in order to survive in a modern world, but adapting with pride in one’s cultural heritage intact, can make the transition less painful and at the same time enrich the outside world.

Leslie Clark – Founder

Leslie Clark, founder of the Nomad Foundation, is an artist whose career has always included travel. After obtaining her master of fine arts degree from George Washington University she traveled to France for her first exhibition. Since then she has traveled and painted searching for new perspective and old wisdom. Her first trip to Niger...

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Sidi Mamane – Niger Representative

Sidi Mamane is the Nomad Foundation representative in Niger. He is the elected councillor for the Ingall region which is the most important region of nomadic people. He is the director of Nomad Expeditions, the Niger arm of Nomad Adventures and a founding member and president of the Agadez Rotary Club. During the Tuareg rebellion...

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Nomad Board of Directors

Leslie Clark, President Leslie Clark is an artist and the founder of the Nomad Foundation. She graduated from George Washington University with a Masters of Fine Arts in 1984. Since that time she has traveled and painted on location the people she encounters. In 1996, she opened the Nomad Gallery in Ojai California, selling her...

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Friends and Partners

ROTARY CLUB The Rotary Club has become an important partner since 2005. Their interest in helping the region of Agadez, Niger, led to the founding of the first Rotary Club in the Sahara in Agadez. Our Niger representative became the founding president and Leslie Clark the founding International Service director. Since our initial contact with...

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About Niger

About Niger
Niger Statistics  Second poorest country in the world (Second only to West African war-torn neighbor, Sierra Leone). Niger is roughly the size of California and Texas combined. The bulk of the population, and all Peace Corps volunteers, are concentrated in the southern third of the country. This transitional zone, known as the Sahel, is a...

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Press

https://nomadfoundation.org/ojais-nomad Ojai Quarterly--Artist's Work Sustains Vanishing way of Life Ojai Valley News--Ojai local's connection to Niger highlighted in film screening Ojai Quarterly--Water the tie that binds us New York Times -- In Niger Using Vacation to help the worlds poor Christian Science Monitor--A California Artist brings health care and education to nomads of Niger Ventana Magazine--On...

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Movies

The NOMAD Foundation 2015 Tamesna Festival 2014--TeleSahel reporting The NOMAD Foundation 2012 Tamesna Clinic 2010 Sahara Expedition 2005   All films produced by Leslie Clark Cinematography by Kevin Peer, Leslie Clark and Benedicte Schoyen Photography by Courtney Hutcheson, Leslie Clark, Claire Brian

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Accomplishments

In our twenty years of work with nomads we have dealt with all the major issues of         WATER • HEALTH • FOOD • EDUCATION • WORK Because nomads are a mobile population and difficult to find, we centralized this work on their annual migration route so they could come to us at:...

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Awards and Grants

2019 Rotary Club grant $2500 to replace goats for women after catastrophic flooding Rotary Club grant $6450 to expand motorcycle repair training program in Niger Leslie Clark nominated for UNA of Santa Barbara Peace Prize 2018 Rotary Grant $6450 to support motorcycle repair training program of at risk youth in Niger 2017 Rotary DA 1718-44  $27,968.13...

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How To Help

  • Sponsor Students
  • Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life
  • Cataract Mission
  • Motorcycle Repair Training
  • Traditional Birth Attendant Training
  • Drill the Well for Tamesna
  • Buy an animal for a nomad
  • Buy Jewelry
  • Sponsor a Matrone

Posts From the Field

Friends running for Office

Help for Iferouane Students, Artisans, Seamstresses and Matrones

Malaria

Mission 2020–The work goes on during the pandemic

COVID-19 mission to the nomads

Our first local training mission in Iferouane

Niger

niger

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Stay in Touch

We send occasional newsletters about our projects, events and efforts.

View the Nomad Gallery site

The Nomad Foundation, a US 501(c) 3 Corporation

Tax ID # 20-8170046