Program areas at Rain for the Sahel and Sahara
Access to education: fewer than 15% of niger's nomadic and rural children attend school. Girls who do enroll only remain for an average of 3 years. Rain's mentoring and tutoring programs increase school attendance and success through women mentors - uneducated community women who encourage and advocate for at risk students, mostly girls. the women receive training in health, hygiene, gender roles and more - they become wise counselors to students and the greater community. the mentored girls learn practical skills that may lead to future livelihoods and they stay in school longer than their classmates. In recent years we have seen the first girls ever graduating from our partner primary schools. the agadez learning center offers access to secondary education for nomadic children.
Rain's women's entrepreneurship program trains cohorts of women in the basics of financial literacy and business practice. By layering our structured training program onto familiar income-generating practices - like gardening and herding, we seek to render the process more accessible and set these networks of women up to support themselves and one another as they collectively navigate whatever challenges they may face.
Food and water security, Rain's food and water programs leverage solar energy, borehole wells, and drip irrigation for community gardens that provide fresh food and generate cash crops. We help launch cooperative gardens where women learn organic agricultural and sustainable business techniques; transforming livelihoods, building women's agency, and supporting family and community wellbeing.
Agadez learning center, this complex creates access to education for girls in grades 6-9 from nomadic communities that offer no education beyond primary school. Students receive room, board, mentoring, and tutoring in a supportive learning environment. Through Rain's supports, students from isolated communities and underfunded primary schools are set up to succeed alongside their city peers.