CAN YOUR CULTURE MAKE YOU HEALTHIER? This Fulani girl is from the village of Goumbi Kanno, near Niger’s border with Nigeria. At the time that I met her, I was working for CARE International, conducting breastfeeding education among the mothers of Goumbi Kanno, a village composed of both the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups. I was living on the Hausa side of the village, and my first – very judgemental! — impression of Kanno was that it was filthy and neglected. Read more…
IS SUFFERING RELATIVE? Over the past couple of days, I have received very nice comments following a few of my posts expressing concern and sadness for the conditions that my friends in the Azawak endure. I am grateful that your heart has been moved. Mine certainly was moved 12 years ago when I first visited the Azawak, and still is today as @ammanimman works to make life saving changes in the region. And yet I’ve come to understand the suffering of my friends there differently. Read more…
THE FLEA INFESTED CAMP: I do not know this Touareg child’s name. But I will never forget her gorgeous smile. Nor will I ever forget the few days I spent in her camp, located deep in the middle of nowhere. Truly, her camp was lost at what seemed the end of the earth, perched in the middle of a vast expanse of low lying hills hundreds of kilometers away from anything even approaching civilization. Read more…
RED RIBBON: MARIAMA
In this photo, three year old Mariama drinks clean water from the Tangarwashane borehole built by Amman Imman in 2007. She not only enjoys clean water, but ever since the borehole was built, she also gets to play with her older brothers and sisters that no longer undertake daylong expeditions searching for water. They have time for school and games. They can take baths year round, instead of bathing only during the one to three month rainy season. They have planted a school garden with Amman Imman’s staff, and have readily accessible food thanks to their community food bank. Read more…
FAIRY WATER FETCHERS: SOUTOUT
“Please play with us,” Takat pleaded. I was busily writing up notes from the questionnaires I had conducted the previous day. She did not have to beg much… there was little I’d rather do than play with her and the other girls from camp. She took me by the hand and walked me to her donkey. She pointed to the goat hide water container… the Touareg traditional refridgerator… “let’s go get some water with the other girls”. Oh, so this was her idea of fun?! And it was! Read more…
MOUHEINI: Mouheini and her group of little girl friends were my shadows during the month that I lived with their nomadic community. They walked with me to neighboring camps as I conducted my Fulbright research, took me to visit marshes and wells, taught me traditional games and words of Tamachek, and ate illiwa by my side. Read more…
THE SMILE: This is Bintou, a Touareg girl from the village of Tchinwagari in Niger. She was and continues to be a major inspiration for our work with @ammanimman. Before we helped build a borehole in her community, her family spent hours a day pulling water from the 600 foot deep well of the village. Read more…
In the first photo, a mother gives a bath to her children in the clean water from the Couloubade borehole. Why not recycle an animal trough into a bathtub? The children aren’t too happy. Baths are a new thing to get used to! Read more…
HEAVING AND HAULING: I learned the true meaning of this phrase in the Azawak. Read more…