Please note that due to both political instability and the threat posed by terrorism we have continued to postpone this project. However, we continue to provide some financial support to our partner organisations and hope to return soon.

There are two parts to the project. TravelAid has links with two separate organisations in Niamey, and volunteers divide their time between them.

MNDHP, is a charity for human rights. They have links with schools across Niamey. MNDHP helps the TravelAid team to organise and publicise a summer school in a central Niamey secondary school (CEG 12). Volunteers work approximately 3 hours a day at the school (Monday to Friday), teaching English to pupils of secondary school age, in three classes with a maximum of 25 pupils in each. The focus of this summer school (run exclusively by TravelAid in conjunction with MNDHP) is spoken English, with a strong emphasis on class participation. Nigerien students already get a lot of instruction in grammar exercises, so it is the TravelAid team’s job to help them put this knowledge to more practical use. The team will decide themselves the details of exactly what and how to teach their classes, but members of the previous year’s team will be available to contact for advice.

The second part of the Niger project has a distinctly different flavour, and involves working with some of Niamey’s many street kids. Volunteers will spend a couple of hours Monday to Friday (when they are not teaching at CEG 12) working with our second partner organisation, the Foyer Tonton Gilles. The Foyer is run by Gilles Akakpo, a man in his late twenties who lived on the street himself as a child and has been helping street kids from the age of 13. The Foyer is a small home for street kids. The children do apprenticeships in various trades during the day (the cost of which is met by Gilles, at his personal expense with the assistance of a few small benefactors, including TravelAid). Gilles is planning on developing his small organisation to reach more children, by opening a youth centre and library.