20 novembre 2007

For an entire week an Education Caravan has been touring eight villages in South Mauritania, a very isolated region without infrastructure and roads, 400 km away from the capital Nouakchott.  The Caravan’s visit is raising awareness of the importance of education for local development.

Organized by the ‘Amicale des Elèves et Etudiants de Hirnangué Bossoya’, a student association involved in education initiatives with volunteers in Mauritania, the initiative is based on a project for strengthening volunteer initiatives for education in cities and rural areas. The project is based on agreements signed between UNV, UNPD and the Marième Diallo Institute, a partner of the Mauritanian students’ Amicale.

The Education Caravan involves activities for children and youth through community volunteers in education. They are organizing cultural and educational activities in the villages they visit and working with school teachers to involve the population in theatre, poems and songs and other innovative means of communications in areas with high poverty and illiteracy. 

Through volunteerism, the programme is promoting the inclusion of marginalised people into the education system and improving their access to educational services.

Ms. Aminata Bâ, a female teacher in Woloum Néré, is also a member of the ‘Amicale’.  She welcomed the Education Caravan and said that children do not go to school in this region for different reasons:  a lack of appreciation of the importance of education; parents who cannot afford school fees, equipment or uniforms; girls marrying and giving birth at an early age; and the lack of central planning for developing education structures in this remote part of Mauritania.

Ms. Bâ said, “Parents should be involved in education activities.  A villagers’ committee should administer the school and the parents should help create community nurseries, kindergartens.  Parents should understand how important education is for local development.

”In Sylla, school director Mr. Thiam Abdoulaye said that people should consider education as a value in life.  Educating people is giving know-how to somebody, an advantage for future development of villages.  Like Ms. Bâ, he said that it is the responsibility of the Government, schoolteachers and directors, but also of parents, to help strengthen the education system and create the necessary infrastructure. 

Mr. Abdoulaye underlined that girls also have an important role to play in local development if educated.  He said, “Educate a boy and you will gain a man; educate a girl and you will gain a nation!”

The immediate outcome of the Education Caravan is that it is creating bonds between people and villages in order to be able to work together and create an education infrastructure in the villages.