Two years into what my sons describe as a lackluster retirement from a hectic career in midwifery and nursing education, I was delighted and excited to be invited as a volunteer on a mission with the Nomad Foundation in Niger, Africa. My obstetrician sister, as the new medical director, invited me to travel and work […]
Dr. Becky’s thoughts from mission 2016
Since returning from Niger, I have shared photos and stories from the trip with many people. These encounters have helped me appreciate the importance of the mission while at the same time alerting me to questions in the minds of people unfamiliar with Niger and nomadic peoples. The Project: I have had the good […]
Premier of Roadtrip:Niger
Benedicte Schoyen wanted me to show the film she had made to the people who were in it and those most interested–who live in Niger. The film is about the Nomad Foundation’s work in Niger and the voyage of the American filmmakers, new to Niger, in 2013.
Not ALL work!
The second day of our trip we were invited to a wedding at the Wodaabe community of Foudouk. So even though we all work like slaves, we have a lot of fun too!!!
Herding at Tamesna School
It is sometimes difficult for nomadic parents to send their children to school because it takes them away from their work as herders. We, not only do not want them to lose this skill, but want to bring new ideas to traditional herd management through the children at school. To this end we proposed to try a […]
Tamesna school extras–music, art and ag
Tamesna school is rare in Niger because we support extra curricular programs that bring new opportunities for the students. Music, particularly guitar is an important tradition to all Tuareg who have lived through recent rebellions, but now that there is peace, the older rebellion musicians are no longer teaching the Tuareg guitar tradition to the young. […]
Tamesna School–9 candidates for Junior high
Tamesna school continues to thrive under the direction of Assadek. As advised by the inspector of schools, nine students are skipping fifth grade to become candidates to go to junior high school next fall 2017. This will be a challenge. It is at this stage that most nomadic children drop out because there are no […]
Glasses from Eyes on Africa
Corrector glasses and sunglasses are a rare commodity in Niger and largely unavailable to nomads. Nomadic women do very fine embroidery and leather work which they would be fully capable of doing after they reach 40 years of age, if only they could see. Everyone’s eyes are damaged by the brutal sun and cataracts are […]
MICROCREDIT
In its third year, our microcredit program is designed to promote peace and stability. The loans are made to young men at risk of leaving their home to seek opportunities elsewhere: usually Libya or Algeria, prosperous, but highly unstable countries. If they have no way of earning a living at home they may be tempted by […]
Matrone follow up 2016
The program began with visits to the remote mobile camps of the traditional birth attendant trainees (matrones) in order to introduce the new medical team to the population and for the team to observe the conditions under which our matrones work. Our next stop was Tourgite where we talked to Rahamata and Malou and proudly […]
Catastrophes and a new beginning
Niger is no stranger to catastrophe and this mission was no different—maybe somewhat more extreme than most. Arriving there I got news that there was an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever—no cases yet in our area, but it caused the government to react by forbidding the export of livestock (Niger’s second largest export after uranium)) […]
Iferouane chicken project
One of our favorite communities, because they are so hard working, is Iferouane. We have started women’s co-ops and worked for many years with their jewelers to produce the jewelry available at Nomad Gallery. This year they proposed a new venture: raising poultry. Thanks go to Rotary and Tom and Cathryn Krause for funding this […]
Agadez 2016
After some serious shopping for nomad gallery in Togo, a lovely meeting with the us ambassador to Niger, who was very complimentary of our work, I arrived in Agadez to be greeted with enthusiasm by Djado. We must cancel our annual tamesna festival this year because of an outbreak of Rift Valley fever. The authorities […]
New Mission to Niger 2016
A new team is headed out to Niger to continue our work with the nomads. Dr. Rebecca Jones, with her midwife sister Pat Manzon will continue Dr. Bob Skankey’s midwife training program and medical work at the Tamesna clinic. We are very grateful to Ventura Global Health Project who helped fund Dr. Jones participation in this mission. […]
School ends for the year
Second grade best in class For first composition: 1. Moussa Ahmed 2.Ghoumar Moussa 3. Mohamed Ahmed For second composition 1. Moussa Ahmed 2. Hamadi Moussa 3. Alhassane Ahmed This is really exciting since # 1 Moussa Ahmed and #2 Hamadi Moussa are sons of our guardians at Tamesna. Third grade best in class For […]
Academically we are the BEST!
It is so fun to be with the kids and do the things with them that really interest me like painting and music and theater, but there is of course another side to their education that you all—especially you sponsors and future sponsors of kids need to know. I have had a suspicion that our […]
Fighting terrorism with opportunity–Microcredit for at risk youth
The generation of young nomads heading into adult life with no education, skills or opportunity pose a distinct threat to the stability of the region. The only skill they possess other than herding is their knowledge of the desert. If they have no way of earning a living at home they may be tempted by a […]
Tamesna Festival 2015
The Tamesna Festival, held annually since 2013, is dedicated to young nomads: culture, peace and security. The most vulnerable population in northern Niger are the young people who are heading into an adult life with few possibilities for earning a living. They love their home and rarely want to leave, given the risks: crossing the […]
Theater at Tamesna school
Assadek, the director of Tamesna school suggested that the kids prepare a theatrical performance i.e. skit for the Festival. He decided on the subject of education for girls. The story is: A nomad father returns to his house to tell his wife he wants to enter their daughter Zeinabou in school. His wife complains: how can I send […]
Music Program
Since we have worked so long with musicians–since 1995 when we brought the first African artist, Prince Sissokho, a kora player from Senegal to the US, we have sponsored five music tours of Tuareg musicians. One of our drivers, Alhassane, was part of the group who toured. He loves to work with children so will […]
Earthbag decorations–Art at Tamesna school
I have had great fun in the past years organizing educational projects which I knew nothing about; solar panel fabrication, medical and midwife training, earth bag building. I learned a lot from the experts we brought in. While I was working on these jobs, I turned over the art program to another artist, Linda […]
Nomadgal Jewelry — Nov.29 & Dec. 2-13
I have been making a lot of jewelry while I’m here. The jewelers come to my house—grand central– and I place orders, buy beads at the market and string them. I suppose it is more elegant to say I design them. With our jewelry gala coming up Nov. 29 and having a booth at Mandalay […]
Keeping busy–big plans for next year
I finally got around to painting the new signs to direct people from the highway to Tamesna. Dr. Bob was not happy that I hadn’t added my decorative touch so here you are Bob. This is for you. Hasso stopped by to say hi with his daughters. Since he is one of the invited musicians […]
Earthbag update
The three earthbag buildings that we built last febuary were not yet occupied when I arrived, as school has just started. There is some leeway in the start of the new school year for nomadic schools. When the rains are good and they have to extend their migration time to maximize herd survival through the […]
Staff Party at Tamesna
Since my first trip out to Tamesna I have gone through such internet frustration that I cannot even begin to describe since it would take me as long to describe as it took me to solve–about a week. One day it took me four hours to upload one of the new students photos to the […]
Some Bad Luck
Agadez had some bad luck today and so did we. At 4am the vegetable market burned down. We had our supplies for feeding the dignitaries at the festival already paid for — so it was a loss of $500. Insurance, or a merchant prosperous enough to reimburse us is not a reality so we […]
Education and artisans
Today was another day about education, but in a different place: Agadez. Nomadic kids rarely have an opportunity to go beyond grammar school, but when there is the will of the parents we like to help where we can. The village of Aouedenine we have worked with for many years. It is the hometown of […]
Back to Tamesna October 2015
I arrived at Tamesna School in the car with M. le maire (Mr. mayor) of Ingal known to us as Sidi. This car,(the one the government let’s him use) is a very nice new one—with televisions in the back of the headrests—that of course don’t work). It had a flat on its nice new tires […]
AFRICAN MARKET SALE September 26
Mid wife training follow up mission–turning it over
In our effort to turn things over to the local management in Niger, Dr. Skankey devised a schedule for Achicha and Sidi to visit the remote camps to check on the newly trained midwives. They made their first mission in June to follow up our training of the new midwives and check on the previously trained. […]
Best mission ever!
I want to brag that this has been the most ambitious mission ever—and we pulled it off! Here’s what we did. Trained 23 nomads to build using earthbags giving them a new skill set to build their own or their community structures and giving us three new buildings at Tamesna: boys dorm, girls dorm and […]
Fighting terrorism with opportunity–microcredit for at risk youth
When we saw the large groups of organized youth showing up to support our festival last November–all dressed alike–Sidi and I had an idea. If we provide them small loans to pursue whatever activity they choose they will be able to make a start and this might be enough for them to stay home and […]
Eleven new mid-wife trainees–and the program gets a new director
The midwife program started by Dr. Robert Skankey in 2011 has completely changed the maternal and infant mortality rate among nomads in Niger. In 2011 one in five women in Niger had a lifetime risk of death in childbirth. In 2015 our matrons have assisted at over 300 births with no maternal deaths and no […]
Tuareg kids dance American style…and their own Tinde
Before I left for Niger Benedicte Schoyen gave me a video of a fundraiser her Born to Play dance students did for the Tamesna School in Niger. They also sent lots of beautiful drawings. I also showed them a video of a nephew and niece, Cole and Charlotte, dancing to Bruno Mars. The nomad kids […]
Earthbag building–FINALLY!
This mission was almost three years in preparation and endured two cancellations, but we persisted and it was worth the wait. It was a risky undertaking: teaching the nomads to build??? Nomads don’t have houses! I have always known that nomads wanted and needed structures to store their things while they are on migration, but since we […]
Tamesna festival 2014
Click here to see Niger National Televisions reporting on the Tamesna Festival 2014 It has been a long time building. We have been working like crazy to present our projects to as many nomads as possible. Nomads come to festivals in the season after the rains when their herds are fat and there is some […]
Jewelry
Still in mourning about having to cancel all our volunteers (see two previous posts) and trying to recover. I thought I would be coming home early, but we have decided I am needed to help with the festival and have been granted permission to go with the President of the Regional Council of Agadez (the […]
But not giving up!
The show must go on. I know many of you think I am crazy, but I truly believe that if we stand down in fear of violent people we only encourage their behavior. I cannot become violent myself, but I can resist and gain ground for the peaceful ones. So enough of melodrama… I was […]
Cancellation !%#*#!!
We should be out at Tamesna, well into our earth-bag building project, with foundations laid, 20 nomads participating in the construction of the dormitories and new teacher’s residence for the boarding school. We should be awaiting the arrival of 20 new mid-wife trainees and the 4 previously trained matrons who were to conduct the training […]
Nomad News October 2014
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