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Words...
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Dec 30, 2007 Posted by Caitlin CohenWe take for granted how much words matter | being able to write down a name next to a phone number, your grocery shopping lists, emails to friends, street signs... When you have spent most of your life as a student (as I have) words become the domain of library stacks and theory. But words are a pragmatic necessity. Literacy is key to health, to keeping records, to getting directions, to taking notes, to running businesses, and to political empowerment.
I am delighted to say that the women's program has started its most ambitious initiative. I had the distinct pleasure of sitting in on their first session of a new program last Monday. Mme Aisata Touré, a trainer with the CAFO, the local women's group, stood in front of 36 women in her big pink chalk-stained boubou. Half of these women are widows or single mothers. She explained the letters of the bambara alphabet, with little anecdotes to explain each one's shape. Us catch water, Cs chase the letters that follow, Ts are trees that provide shade.
The CAFO has restructured the training program that they run and we fund. Under the fabulous new leadership of Mme Touré, what once were separate trainings, literacy and business skills, are now combined into one. The literacy and math component provides the long-term skills, and the ability to take notes. The business component provides the group with an income so that the women can afford to come to class. There is an incentive for attendance, with the best school attendance are rewarded with additional materials for their businesses. And Mme runs a tight ship! Every woman who participates brings in 100 FCFA every week to put into a safe, and latecomers contribute 25 FCFA more. At the end of the program, the women get this money back to start their own collaborative businesses in groups of six.
I am thrilled to see Mme Touré’s initiative, drive, and skill. With her system, women learn to read, to save, to earn, and to work together. We would like to support her initiative by giving her a small salary of $50 per month for teaching 4 days a week, 3 hours a day. We are also in need of four more sewing machines for the training. Please help us make this a reality by giving a donation to the women's program or donating your old functional sewing machine.