By Soumana Saley | President
Students started back in school from their summer break in early October. We have added two new weaving students. These young fellows showed up at the school and were determined to join the weaving class. We just could not turn them down! The photos are of the new students working on their looms. There are now a total of 12 weaving students. And the pile of finished projects keeps growing.
We had to make changes in our original plans to start literacy training. We enrolled 60 new tailoring and leather working students in October--double the previous number. We were surprised to discover that many of them had attended high school, unlike the previous group, and they were able to read and write. We did not want to bore these students or waste resources teaching something they already knew, so we decided to go ahead and start or continue with everyone training in trade skills. But literacy in our students is important to us, so we are working out a plan to teach literacy to those students who need it without leaving them behind in the trade classes. We will let you know how we work this out.
Our big news is that in November we reached our original funding goal of $10,000.
As we close this project out, we reflect on what we, together with you, have been able to achieve--contruction of the weaving shed, installation of 5 traditional looms, a year of free training for 10 young weavers. From photos we posted in past reports, you can see the rapid progress the students have made.
To the best of our knowledge, Abdoulwahid Goumer, our weaving instructor, is the last practicing tera-tera weaver in Niger. Through our school, he is now bringing along 12 new weavers in this Nigerien weaving style and we will be able to preserve a beautiful, traditional Nigerien craft.
We are not stopping here. This year we have plans to bring a trainer in from the United States to help make the transition from traditional to floor looms. Floor looms should triple the productivity of the weavers and are much easier on their bodies. We are also going to solicit donations of floor looms from weavers in the USA to increase the number of floor looms available to our students from the one that was donated several years ago by weavers in Bellingham, Washington, USA.
We will soon open a new project that will cover projects for the entire DIMA school (weaving, tailoring, and leather work). We hope you will check out the latest photos and our plans for 2022.
Thank you for what you have made possible and Best Wishes for 2022!
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