A challenging yet successful year for students
27 November 2024
The four –year project expanding Rain for the Sahel and Sahara’s (RAIN) existing “Lower Secondary School Homestay Project”, to an additional 92 (up from 80) under-resourced children from 17 isolated rural communities in the Agadez region of Niger is closing out its second year.
RAIN is currently supporting 92 lower secondary school students across 5 schools in Aouderas, Dabaga, Ingall, Dannet, and Aderbissinat in the expansive Agadez Region. The homestay program is designed to assist students from communities where there is no local school and the distance to the nearest regional school is too far for a daily commute. RAIN’s program addresses this challenge by pairing students with local women who act as their "homestay mothers." 100% of homestay students are from under-represented communities including ethnic minority groups.
While Niger has always had significant baseline challenges, this year’s unique challenge has been the post-coup political landscape and the economic and security uncertainty resulting from it. Measures were taken by the Addax and Oryx Foundation working together with RAIN, ensuring students in the project were provided for and that they did not become a burden to their homestay household. This increases the likelihood that their parents will elect for them to remain in school and that their homestay family will remain a healthy and supportive environment. RAIN is the only organization these communities can rely on for continued partnership, knowing that education is an opportunity that cannot be replaced. Students and homestay mothers believe this too. Through it all, the students and homestay mothers in this program have demonstrated extraordinary resiliency. The students have continued to achieve academic success, even with these additional challenges.
100% of homestay students remained in attendance at school and have also remained in the program year to year, passed the national exams at 1.7x the regional rate. 44 girls were enrolled in area schools, a 47% increase of girls’ participation in the first year. In the 2023-2024 academic year, despite working with high-risk students and challenging post-coup circumstances, RAIN homestay students exhibited a pass rate 25% higher than average, indicating an improvement over year 1 program impacts.
Students gave positive feedback on the support received from their host mothers, mentors, and supplemental academic programming. This vulnerable population is being insulated from the impacts of the post-coup climate and are effectively leveraging the opportunities available to them to achieve a higher degree of academic success.
