Update: Kuluje Sewing and Literacy Center

Like Elevage, it has been a while since we've brought you news about the Kuluje Sewing and Literacy Center in Niger, and we thought the best way to share what's been going on would be to show you through some of the beautiful photos from Judy and John's last visit.

We first wrote about Kuluje in April 2011, and the women are making excellent progress. The Center is currently teaching literacy and sewing skills to 23 young women in the community. 

If you would like to see more pictures of the women and the center, please visit our Flickr page.

Elevage Update

It's been far too long since we've written about our Elevage (sheep raising) project in Niger.

This income-generating program in Gonzare, Niger provides 20 women with micro-loans to purchase breeding sheep to begin building their own flocks. After 2 rounds of breeding, adults are sold to repay the loan. Lambs become the basis of the new--and fully owned-- new flock (please read the original post for more details).

 We hope you enjoy these pictures of the women involved, as well as some of their animals from John and Judy's last trip to Africa. For more pictures, visit us on Flickr.

Below is the final report on the project, which tells us that everyone involved has been satisfied with how it's gone. We've provided the whole report, so if you're interested in more details, please take a look! We are so grateful EPN volunteer, Frank Gontier, for his translation of the document.

Rapport Elevage (Translation)

EPN's New Water Project in Niger

Even though we have recently shared news of too much water in Niger, the problem of too little water is still a very real one. That being said, it's time to share a new project with all of you. This latest grant will be used to fund the Tonko Bangou village water project in Libore, Niger. 

This project has come about because of the initial passion of Pete Brach. The Brach family were major supporters of the Farmers of the Future project in 2011, and have also been major supporters of the work of Advisory Committee Member, Dov Pasternak, for many years

When Pete traveled with John and Judy to Niger last winter, he was moved by the plight of villages who had no access to water. They learned that the Nigerien government is building a water pipeline that will reach many of these villages, and will supply water to any village that pays to be connected to the pipeline. 

Pete was really impressed with the ability of water to transform the landscape, as well as the lives of the people in these villages. He had John stop on the road and take the two photos you see above. One is to the left of the road; the other is to the right - same spot in the road.The top photo shows the typical barren landscape of Niger, while the photo on the bottom shows an irrigated field, green, with acres of rice. Access to water is the foundation for a healthy population and a healthy economy. Pete immediately grasped this, and set a goal to raise funds to make as many connections as possible to the new public water pipe on order to bring safe water to communities along the main road southeast of Niamey. His efforts will make a world of difference for those people.

The first contributions total $6,200 ($3200 from Pete and $3000 from the Brach Family Charitable Foundation) to connect the village of Tonko Bangou to the government pipeline. Approximately 5,000 people will benefit from this grant.

If you're interested in helping out with this project, please visit the DONATE page.