Table of Contents A Letter from the Founder The RAIN Story Our Mission Statement What RAIN Believes In Why Niger The Nomads of Niger Where RAIN Works Community Cooperatives Earn for Education Agriculture Herding Women’s Artisan Cooperatives Women Mentoring Girls: The Literacy and Health Loop 2011 And Beyond RAIN Has LEGs How We Grow Focus on nomadic peoples and the rural poor endorsed by UNICEF The Future is Now Photo 1

We rebuilt our temporary classroom every September for 20 years, hoping one day someone would pass by, see our hard work and help us. Finally, RAIN has arrived. Chief, Ingui, Niger.

REE note: up to you how to handle quotes: in italics or using “ marks.

Photo 1A

photo of chief . optional. Photo 1A??He’s a little odd looking, eh?

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Photo 2.Bess Palmisciano with Rhaisha, one of RAIN’s earliest volunteers. Rhaisha worked with the AIDS education program, was a member of a women’s artisan cooperative and cooked vegetables from the school garden for school lunches. She said: “Before RAIN I had no hope for the future. Now I have a sense of well-being.”

A Letter from the Founder

RAIN was born in the rocky desert outcroppings of the Air Massif in the immense Agadez region. Agadez is the center of Niger’s nomadic life and homeland to tens of thousands of Tuareg people. People there explained to me that they followed the traditional lifestyle of nomadic

herders – moving when necessary to seek pastureland for their herds of goats, sheep and camels. Parents told me that while they were traveling with their herds, their children had to board at remote state-run schools. Many parents wanted their children to be educated, but with no food and minimal infrastructure these threadbare state-run schools were neither safe nor welcoming.

Together we devised a plan that called for a small budget and a big community effort. Community participation and self-determination continue to be the foundation of our sustainable development. With proven, replicable approaches, RAIN has grown substantially since 2002. We continue to expand the reach of our vital ground-up programs with Tuareg, Wodaabe and other motivated people throughout Niger and beyond.

Thousands of parents volunteer in RAIN’s programs. RAIN’s integrated, ground-up approach has fostered trust, galvanized community involvement and built long-term program sustainability. More children are attending school, mentors are helping girls to stay in school as never before and school market gardens provide food to nomadic children in state-run boarding schools.

Progress is possible because our stakeholders--students, mentors, parents, school personnel, artisans, gardeners--all step forward to earn funds needed to keep their programs going. Communities write to RAIN, asking us to join them in their struggles for food, water and education. RAIN’s goal is to reach the thousands in need and waiting. RAIN’s Five-Year Plan In 2011–2015 we will expand our programs as follows:

• We will continue to increase our unique mentoring and education programs throughout rural Niger;

• We will increase the number of school market gardens and wells installed each year, as well as developing new agricultural programs;

• We will establish new cooperative businesses, engaging rural parents in the support of their schools.

Helping the nomadic and other rural peoples to achieve food and water security and improve their standards of living is not only the right thing to do as humanitarians, it promotes support for America and its ideals in the most vulnerable parts of the world.

RAIN’s work depends on engaged and dedicated partners -- from Niger’s nomadic camps and villages to grantors and individual donors in the United States and, incrementally, around the world. We invite you to join our global partnership.

With gratitude and optimism,

Bess Palmisciano

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The RAIN Story

Rain for the Sahel and Sahara is guided by the principle that education is key to economic and personal development. Parents in Niger agree, and together we have implemented programs that foster community participation in, and improvement of, their local state-run schools. This participation encompasses the integration of agriculture and animal husbandry into schools, mentoring of students by community women and cash contributions to schools by artisanal and other cooperative businesses.

RAIN is ground up in its approach to community development. Our first program was

the installation of drip-irrigated school market gardens to grow food for students while achieving sustainability with the sale of cash crops. We now have a proven model and have installed 15 gardens, with more in progress. The gardens are learning centers where children and adults study agricultural techniques as well as nutrition, conservation and marketing. A new garden immediately increases enrollment at RAIN schools by about 20%.

When comparing the status of women to that of men, Niger comes in last with a

ranking of 155 out of 155 countries measured. RAIN’s women mentors encourage girls to stay in school, counseling them and advocating for them with teachers and families. The mentors offer after-school classes in practical skills that often provide future livelihoods for girls. We train the mentors in health issues such as nutrition, hygiene and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. In weekly meetings this knowledge is passed along to their students.

Only 46% of girls enrolling in school in sub-Saharan Africa complete primary school. Girls in the RAIN mentoring program drop out of school significantly less often than their classmates. We offer the women mentors bilingual literacy classes and soon they are studying French with their students. This unified program, our literacy loop, brings women and girls together to enhance educational opportunities for both. To achieve our goal of sustainability we are now developing small businesses for our women mentors.

Key to the durability of RAIN’s education programs in Niger is the ability of each community to contribute to its school. Self-sustaining gardens provide food for children and some funds, but other needs must be met. RAIN works with women artisans to develop products suitable for Western markets. We sell the women’s products; the cooperatives receive 100% of the profits from these sales. The women give 50% to help support their local schools; the remainder is shared by the artisans.

Gardens and cooperative businesses provide the financial foundation of our approach

to education. Education is a long-term commitment; earning a high school degree requires 12 years of study. In a region burdened by 10% literacy rates, there are many to educate. Help is needed; RAIN believes that lasting support must come from the communities themselves.

In 2010 1,975 girls and 70 mentors were enrolled in RAIN’s education programs. Some of these girls have been in the program for five years or more; others have moved on. In total, over 2,200 girls have participated.

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Photo 3: Gougaram School teacher, Bess, children, guide Moussa Haidara during an early visit to Niger.

Photo 4: RAIN literacy teacher with Tifinagh letters.

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Our Mission Statement Rain for the Sahel and Sahara (RAIN) works with nomadic and rural peoples of West Africa to improve their lives through education, agriculture, water security and income-producing activities. These locally rooted, replicable programs promote literacy and empowerment while sustaining cultural traditions throughout the Sahel and Sahara.

What RAIN Believes In We value mutual respect – the giving and sharing of knowledge, skills and resources between RAIN and our stakeholders. Basic education and secure livelihoods are critical to accessing the world of possibility for individuals, families and their cultures. RAIN respects the universally accepted values of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Why Niger Niger is a landlocked and arid land about the size of France. It is rated the world’s poorest country by the United Nations Development Program (2009). This index ranks countries according to a composite measure of three human development dimensions: education (measured by adult literacy and enrollment in education), a decent standard of living (measured by income) and living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy).

Ree, insert photo5. Niger map. Please delete captions from the photo and also delete the shading in the zinder and tahoua regions just insert the map with Agadez and tillaberi

Niger is divided into seven regions noted on the map at right. By far the largest region is Agadez, which covers some 394,000 square miles—52% of Niger. The Agadez region is the heart of Niger’s nomadic homelands and is populated by about 500,000 widely disbursed people.

The TillaberI region, located in the southwestern corner of Niger, is much more densely populated than Agadez, with 2,200,000 people living in its 35,000 sq. miles. It is home to many Tuareg, Wodaabe and other minority groups.

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The Nomads of Niger The nomads of Niger live in harmony with the desert that they have made their homeland for thousands of years. They love their desert lives but struggle to eke out an existence in an environment that is increasingly harsh, arid and constrained.

The Tuareg are the famous Lords of the Desert—warriors who long ruled the Sahara, who have an ancient written language, Tifinagh, and whose music, dance and culture have been the subject of fascinated study and speculation by generations of explorers, archaeologists and scholars.

Photo 6,7 captions

The Tuareg are a matrilineal society in which women have an honored place. Tuareg men must cover their faces, while women have no such requirement. Photo 8,Tuareg man on his camel.

The Wodaabe have their own desert history. Their festivals, in which men chant, dance and wear distinctive makeup to attract potential mates, are attended by tourists from all over the world.

There are few remaining societies on Earth that are as remote, isolated and faithful to tradition as these Niger nomads.

Photo 9, Wodaabe men celebrating the rainy season, attributed to Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher “The Nomads of Niger.”

Photo 10, Wodaabe woman with calabash she has decorated, it will hold milk.

Herding is the major livelihood of Niger’s nomads. They make an important contribution to economy of Niger. The country’s second largest export product, following uranium ore, is livestock.

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Where RAIN Works RAIN began its work in the Agadez region of Niger. From program hubs in the communes of Gougaram and Iferouane we serve nomadic communities throughout the Air Massif, the craggy mountain range that is home to tens of thousands of Tuareg people. We have expanded to the southern reach of the Agadez region to Aderbissinant—a huge region of 25,000 sq. miles—and to the Azawak where we now work with the Wodaabe nomadic people.

RAIN is now well-established in Tillaberi—a densely populated region of 2,200,000 people about four hours northwest of Niamey. People in Tillaberi are among the most food insecure in all Niger; yet many receive little or no assistance.

P7 I don't find AZAWAK on the map of Niger. General point - any location mentioned in the text should be accompanied by a placement on the map.

PHOTO 11 REE, PLEASE DELETE THE GREEN COLORING ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER AREAS.

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Community Cooperatives Earn for Education PHOTO 12 wheat harvest in a RAIN school market garden.

Agriculture: Much of Niger, though arid, is well suited to agriculture—with irrigation. RAIN constructs farm plots to support schools. Built collectively by RAIN staff, parents, teachers and school children, these carefully planned 1,000 square meter gardens provide food for the children. They are learning centers where children and adults acquire new skills and gain experience. We utilize well water and resource-saving drip irrigation systems to grow adequate cash crops which ensure sustainability and, in the longer term, generate significant cash for schools. RAIN has developed a sequence of steps needed to build and sustain a school market garden. We have proven, replicable programs that we are eager to share with communities throughout Niger and neighboring West African countries.

A small investment of about $10,000 -- to install a school market garden and provide training and improvements for several years -- creates both a long-term, self-sustaining source of food for schoolchildren and profits to support their school. The gardens support themselves within the first year. RAIN invests about 15% in the second or third year to enlarge and improve the gardens. Soon profits are generated – contributing to communities’ support of their schools.

Herding: RAIN provides sheep, goats or camels to foster a chain of ‘lending’ animals for breeding—a local practice called TEMOKO— two offspring of each donated animal are given to another herder who breeds them and gives away two offspring, and so on. Some herders partner with RAIN to care for a herd for the benefit of their local schools. RAIN also teaches better practices of feeding and health care for herds.

85% Niger’s people are subsistence farmers or herders—there is almost no industrial base. RAIN’s training and technology make these traditional livelihoods more profitable. please highlight this paragraph somehow

photo 13 An Arlit mentor receives her TEMOKO goat.

10% of Niger’s nomads are literate —and about the same percentage of children attend school. Each RAIN school market garden increases enrollment by about 25%

Malnutrition plagues 44% of children under 5. RAIN’s agricultural programs are key to long-term food security.

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“Young men from Foudouk have to go away to find work. They want to stay home. We need to learn better ways to raise our animals.”- President, Foudouk Young Men’s Association.

The young man is describing ‘exod,’ the widespread practice of men leaving Niger, usually seasonally, to find jobs in neighboring countries. This practice causes family instability. With local ways to earn livings, many more young men will stay home.

What’s been done so far: RAIN has installed 15 school market gardens in the Agadez and Tillaberi regions of Niger. Animal husbandry programs were begun in early 2010 in Foudouk and Arlit.

Our plan for 2011–2015: The Niger River, in the southwest corner of the country, is the only waterway in Niger that flows year-round. Lake Chad, on the southeastern border, is the sole permanent lake. It rains only two – three months each year, so wells and irrigation are key to life and progress in Niger. In addition to providing clean drinking water, RAIN’s wells are the foundations of our agriculture and animal husbandry programs. We strive to install a well and garden in every school location that offers good terrain and sufficient accessible water. Herding animals is a traditional occupation of Niger’s nomadic peoples. We strive to increase its profitability with improved techniques. We will also continue to use the traditional system of animal sharing, TEMOKO, to generate funds to support schools. RAIN will increase installation of wells, gardens and TEMOKO animal husbandry programs by 20% per year. PHOT0 14

Members of the young men’s association of Foudouk, Agadez region, buying the TEMOKO goat herd funded by RAIN.

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Women’s Artisan Cooperatives INSERT PHOTO 15: Akadaka Alhassane

In 2006 woman named Akadaka, who was impressed by the successful school market garden in her town of Gougaram, asked RAIN to develop programs to help her women’s cooperative earn money. The poverty level in Niger is such that her request deserved consideration. We asked if the women would be willing to share their profits with their local school. Their response was an enthusiastic YES.

So began RAIN’s women artisans’ cooperatives, and later, a variety of other school-supporting cooperative enterprises.

What’s been done so far. The Gougaram Women’s Artisan Cooperative (GWC) alone has earned over $16,000, with half donated to funding school programs. In Niger, with an average annual income of less than $300, $16,000 goes far.

The chart below represents RAIN’s training and supply costs for the GWC compared to the income generated for the women and their children’s school. Despite two years of regional conflict, during which GWC members stopped producing goods, the women have persevered and bought medical care, clothing, shoes, mattresses, blankets, school supplies and food for the 110 students at the Gougaram school. The pride of the women who give these valuable donations to the schools is palpable and galvanizes their communities. INSERT HERE CHART showing gwc expenses and income RR would like the income and expense legends to the right, near the lines, then make larger the * and statement GWC did not make goods……..

Our plan for 2011 – 2015. This income-generating partnership between RAIN and community members is the sustainability model for the creation of profitable livelihoods for parents, empowering them to support their schools.

Community cooperatives generating funds for members and schools will be increased by 30% per year, at an average start up cost of $2,500. We will introduce new enterprises, mostly run by women’s cooperatives, such as:

• Value-added agriculture: drying organic fruit, the planting and sale of tree seedlings; • Production of nutritional supplements; • Weaving straw sacks to replace plastic bags; and • More artisan enterprises.

We will improve profitability of our gardens and enterprises by training our entrepreneurs in marketing, as well as improving systems and means of transporting goods to market in Niger and beyond.

Rural girls in Niger have few opportunities to attend high school, but even completion of eighth grade gives them skills and confidence to enhance their future livelihoods.

The importance of education for girls and women is well documented.

Educated women:

• Live longer—they marry and have fewer children, at later ages,

• Their understanding of health and hygiene is a benefit to them and their families,

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• They are less likely to contract AIDS.

Women Mentoring Girls: The Literacy and Health Loop Photo 16

RAIN draws on mothers, many of whom wish they could have attended school, to encourage families to send their daughters and sons to school, and to help the children succeed there.

What’s been done so far: RAIN gained experience in mentoring girls through its participation as an implementing partner in the USAID-sponsored girls’ scholarship program. We have taken the program beyond scholarships and mentoring—offering the students after-school classes in practical skills that may lead to future incomes and sponsoring literacy classes

for mentors. The percentage of rural boys in school is only slightly higher than girls; where appropriate RAIN includes boys in its mentoring programs

Our plan for 2011–2015:

We will increase our scholarship and mentoring programs by 20–40% each year. RAIN and its mentors will initiate cooperative businesses through which mentors will generate income to support their mentoring programs for years to come.

From Mariama Mohamed, a 20-year old Tuareg woman from Akokan, Niger. In June 2010 she and some of her classmates in the RAIN mentoring program were the first girls from their poor neighborhood to graduate from junior high school. Mariama is now attending high school and says:

“RAIN has been helping me since 2005. RAIN gave me all the supplies for my classes and paid my tuition. I also benefited from meetings regarding STI / HIV / AIDS. My mentor, Hadiza Mahamane, always urged me to attend all my classes. She exhorted me to love my school and never come late or be absent. This mentor taught me to embroider cloth.

My mother realized the importance of school and sponsorship of the NGO RAIN when I learned to embroider sheets. It is thanks to the fruits of this work that I can now pay for my school supplies and for a few small family needs. I even taught my mother and other friends to embroider.”

Miriama Mohamed, photo 17, goes with the text box above

With photos, text box or otherwise highlighted: “RAIN’s mentoring program is very strong, and is being implemented with great regularity. The commitment of the mentors, who sometimes walk up to seven kilometers to meet with the girls, is remarkable... The program’s focus on traditional skills is also noteworthy, as this seems very much to capture the interest and attention of the girls.”—RAIN Performance Monitoring Report, March 2006 , USAID-funded Ambassadors’ Girls’ Scholarship Program.

2011 And Beyond: RAIN Has LEGs

Key to lasting change is the commitment of its stakeholders – parents, teachers, volunteers and funders alike. The determination of the

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desert people, striving to improve life for themselves and their children, the love of their arid homelands, is striking. The RAIN mantra became: “They just need a leg up.” That phrase continues to guide our development approach – local people initiate and take responsibility for RAIN’s education and income-generating programs. We’ve experimented with and honed our core programs. And now we tackle the next steps to extend our reach to thousands more with an integrated program that we named, coming full circle, LEGs.

LEGs are cohesive Learning and Earning Groups of children and adults who learn and earn together: women mentoring girls, children helping adults learn to read and write, communities learning about health and hygiene, schools provisioned with food and supplies. All this supported by earning groups: unique constellations of businesses—school market gardens, women’s artisan cooperatives, the breeding and sharing of animals, making nutritional supplements for animals —integrated programs that are appropriate to the needs, resources and skills of each location.

Communities know their own needs and resources. Together we plan an array of Learning and Earning Groups selected to generate substantial assistance to community schools. Each activity within the LEG hub must contribute to the wellbeing of the enterprise members who manage the activity, as well as to local schools.

RAIN develops replicable models for each LEG:

School Market Gardens and Wells

grow food for schoolchildren and are agriculture learning centers.

Temoko Groups

raise herd animals and share the offspring for a continuous and

expanding giving chain.

Women’s Artisan Cooperatives

create beautiful, marketable traditional crafts for RAIN to market.

We continue to explore, creating more businesses that teach skills, improve livelihoods and support schools.

In 2010 and beyond we will assist parents in choosing the array of activities they predict may best support their schools. From these centers our programs radiate—as spokes in a wheel—to neighboring communities to define and implement each community’s array of LEGS. In this way parents are inspired to hope, and schools become the focus of as disparate peoples join together in common cause.

CHANGE TITLE OF GRAPHIC BELOW TO

How LEGs Support Schools and Revitalize Communities

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We have room to grow! There are over 3,000 state-run primary schools in Niger. Of these 375 are in Agadez (50,000 students) and 1,894 in Tillaberi (200,000 students).

(RAIN) is very well respected and has developed methods and programs that are sustainable, involve the communities wholly, have clearly generated behavior change. – 2006 USAID Monitoring Report

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How We Grow RAIN chooses as hub communities those whose populations are among the poorest in Niger, and that:

• Receive little or no aid from outside sources

• Have an active school with at least 100 students

• Include nomadic communities and other underserved rural

populations

• Have a core of parents committed to education, as exhibited by motivation and perseverance in assisting their school

Each Learning and Earning Group includes a number of the following integrated activities:

• Mentoring and Literacy

• SMG: an irrigated school market garden with well

• TEMOKO: the tending and sharing of animal herds

• Women’s Artisan Cooperative

• Other women’s cooperative businesses such as growing tree seedlings to sell

• General Store

• Agriculture value-added, such as dried fruits and vegetables

Productivity pyramid here. Can you send me the latest version? RR wanted to change its layout but I don’t know if we asked you to do that. bess

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Focus on nomadic peoples and the rural poor endorsed by UNICEF

Providing services to the poorest and most disadvantaged children may save more lives per dollar than current strategies followed by the UN and large aid organizations…

Quoted from UNICEF, see article Progress for Children: Achieving MDG’s with Equity, Philanthropy Digest, September 2010

Since its inception in 2001 RAIN has focused on nomadic peoples and other rural poor. We are often the only international aid organization involved with our community partners. In September 2010 UNICEF issued a report affirming the value of assisting those most in need – the ‘equity approach’.

Photos 18, 19 & 20. If too many, delete #18 Captions: 18, Boys in dormitory at Foudouk school. 19,Tuareg desert home. 20,Tuareg girls in the Air Massif

The reality of daily life among Niger’s nomads and rural poor is shocking:

• 80% of Niger’s 14,000,000 people live in rural areas

• 75% of people outside cities have no access to clean water

• A mere 3% have access to sanitation

• Within this rural population, the nomadic peoples are the most marginalized—due in large part to their lack of education

RAIN’s focus on the rural poor is key to overall development in Niger and the world.

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The Future is Now RAIN is a searcher. We engage in community dialogue – our partners are not statistics; we know their names and the dynamics of their local cultures. Rather than approach development with a list of solutions, we listen and develop them with all local stakeholders - - parents, teachers, chiefs, children.

Photo 21. Bess in Gougaram, jogging on the national highway to Iferouane, in the Agadez region.

RAIN programs in education, agriculture and community cooperative businesses are well-established and proven. The sustainability that has evolved in our programs is the key to our growth. Our next phase focuses upon selecting and developing an array of programs in each community that will generate enough learning and earning to improve the quality of life there. We strive for every program to be durable – sustainable for the long term. The startup cost for each business is between $2,500 and $3,000. This sum, plus several years’ consulting and support, are not loans but investments in the future. Repayment is made to schools and communities rather than to RAIN. The success of each investment is measured by the amount of school support generated, the increasing number of children succeeding in school, as well as the improved living conditions of families. We are moving beyond the threshold of our original vision: communities invested in and supporting education and commerce for the betterment of all. Accompany us as we enter the world of tomorrow.

To be added as decoration somewhere “Since you get more joy out of giving to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.” Eleanor Roosevelt “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” Arthur Ashe “One tree alone cannot make a fence.” Tuareg proverb

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NOTE TO REE: Ree, can the font in the document be enlarged from your draft? And can the headings be accented more, they seem a little lost. My thought is that breaks that are a little more dramatic would make it more inviting to read. Many thanks for your good eye and effort. If you have any concerns about text, length of section, photos, just let me know.