Donate to the Nomad Foundation

Loading…

Donate to one of our causes:

  • 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
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

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
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Facebook

DONATE NOW

Best mission ever!

February 14, 2015 by leslieclark 6 Comments

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 new teacher’s residence.
  • Trained 11 new midwives
  • Provided 27 microcredit loans to at risk nomadic youth
  • Continued turning over operations to the local staff by appointing Achicha Harouna director of the matron (midwife program)

A big thank you to our team:

James Golub and Fox McBride of United Earthbuilders worked non-stop braving wind and cold and blazing sun. Repeated challenges  threatened to stop the job—well broke down—no water, truck broke down—no earth, ran out of bags—sent out Moussa on a motorcycle who miraculously found another 1,000, even though they were caustic soda bags—wear gloves!   They always found something to do or another way to do it and never threw up their hands in dismay—as I did on numerous occasions—but then I always do in Niger for a million valid reasons.

They said the nomad crew was one of the best they had ever taught and worked so hard they finished all three domes three days early—just in time for a monumental sand storm to drive us indoors.

Visit their website United Earthbuilders.com

Dr. Bob Skankey  Tireless volunteer—how does he keep going? Never complains, but we sure missed his wife Louine this trip. Eleven new mid-wives have life saving skills that Dr. Bob has given them and he appointed a proud successor to direct the program: Achicha.

IMG_4679_2

Dr. Bob Skankey. Achicha, Sidi, Fox, James, Larry and Leslie

Larry Beckett, Rotarian, Nomad Foundation Board member and third time Niger volunteer was always there when needed this trip. Packing pills, showing the matrones how to plant moringa, mixing clay, overseeing the hydraulic study, but most important to me was his advice and support—his willingness to brainstorm the problems and always moving toward a solution. We have taken huge steps toward increased independence of the projects—all with the goal of the nomads doing for themselves and sustaining what we have built.  This trip with Larry’s ideas we have taken our biggest steps ever.

 

 

The team with our military escort.

The team with our military escort.

And a huge thank you to Rotary Club Ojai West for funding the midwife mission Ojai Rotary for helping with the earthbag building mission helping with the midwife mission.

Spread the Word:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • More
  • WhatsApp
  • Email

Category General

Previous
Fighting terrorism with opportunity–microcredit for at risk youth
Next
Mid wife training follow up mission–turning it over

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Terri gold

    February 15, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    Amazing what you accomplished!great spirit and energy and wonderful team – congratulations !

    Reply
  2. Benedicte Schoyen

    February 18, 2015 at 1:18 pm

    This is all great news to read. Nice to see photos of everyone again too.
    Congratulations!!!

    Reply
  3. Jen Curran

    February 19, 2015 at 8:23 am

    Great updates and wonderful news! Keep up the good work.

    Jen

    Reply
  4. GRAN FRAN: FRANCES SEKELA

    February 20, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    I’m very proud of my grandson James and all of his vast accomplishments. He stands behind all of his projects and delivers. Please spread the praiseworthy efforts to everyone & recommend UNITED EARTH BUILDERS without any hesitation. MAKE GOOD USE OF THE WEBSITE!! Accolades to the WHOLE team effort!! GranFran

    Reply
    • GRAN FRAN: FRANCES SEKELA

      February 20, 2015 at 12:29 pm

      Accolades to my Grandson James & his team for their more than praiseworthy efforts. Happy to have him home safe and sound after a thunder & lightening opportunity to prevail with his NOMAD team.
      GranFran

      Reply
  5. Suzanne Scar

    February 22, 2015 at 7:53 am

    Wow! This mission makes me so proud of our Rotarians and all of those that made this a true accomplishment.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

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

Footer

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

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.