A school teacher is fighting to keep together an unlikely school in an unlikely village...
The local population contribute to feed the teachers and give them the material needed to run the classes.
But the rare families that live on this island in the middle of the Sahara no longer have the funds necessary for the upkeep of the school or the teachers...
Help for the Araouan school
My friend Bernard Cournarie (author of the photographs) and I fell in love with this village in 2003. Three teachers give classes to 150 children, but the village didn't have the funds to pay them this year.
Bernard and I decided to help the school and their teachers. Firstly with school supplies in 2004 and we hope to continue to finance their needs in order to avoid the school's disappearance. The annual budget for the school is 3 000 Euros.
Far from tourist itineraries, the 50 families that live in Awaran are particularly poor. The men are forced to work elsewhere to feed the village where practically only the women, children and elderly remain.
Araouan, an isolated island in the middle of the Sahara
The school in Araouan!
An Awaran classroom! Sand, just like the Trans Aq'!
Yaya Maiga, the teacher, giving classes in French.
A few Awaran houses
A view of Awaran rooftops
The women and children walk kilometres each day in search of fodder
The curiosity of a young girl!
Awaran has many wells
The village chief
Bernard and Yaya in 2004
Araouan
Araouan's (Mali) only treasure is its wells (a salty, warm water). During centuries, it was the last chance to fill up with water for the enormous caravans (sometimes 600 camels) before entering central Sahara linking them with Morocco.
If these enormous caravans disappeared about a century ago the "salt road" still exists and goes via Araouan.
The salt caravans still link Timbuktu with the mines of Taoudenni (550 km North of Araouan). But they are more and more scarce and only have 20 or 30 camels. Big, antediluvian Berliet trucks adventure into the sands and little by little replace the camels. Instead of the 17 days one way travel, it now only takes 3 or 4 for the trucks, that can load more salt...
The water in Araouan is of no interest now and the village is dying.
Practically nothing can grow on this island of white sand burnt by the sun. It's about 45/50°C in the summer and 25°C in the winter. In the shade. And the only shade is in the houses, earth constructions. The women sometimes walk 10 km a day to find some dry grass to feed their livestock or a few sticks to make a fire. More often than not dry camel dung is burnt for cooking purposes, because there is nothing in Awaran, you've understood.
The school
It has three roughly built classrooms in the village centre, foundations in the sand of course.
It was financed in 1998 by some passing Italians. It's a communal school and three teachers organise themselves to give classes to 150 children of all ages. Most of the classes are given in French (two teachers).
The school year lasts 9 months. Starting in September and ending in May, the hottest time of the year.
One of the two teachers, Yaya Maiga is fighting for the government to integrate this school into the national Malian education system.
Whilst waiting for a reply that's not forthcoming, he's searching for private funding, and we've heard his call.
How to help the school?
Profits linked to the sale of Trans Aq' photos cover about 35% of the school's annual needs (film sales don't usually generate a profit, quite the opposite in fact...).
For the rest we're going to give our own money and we also hope to receive some donations from yourselves if you feel that it's for a good cause. Ten Euros, it's a day's wages for three teachers!
