By Lara Khosrovian As a current student within the United States education system, I felt overwhelmingly hopeless when classes were converted to an entirely remote curriculum due to the global pandemic. I felt as though my learning and overall experiences were compromised. However, my resources were never eliminated, support systems were always accessible, and my… Read more »
Fadji Maina: A Nigerien NASA Scientist Fighting Water Scarcity
By: Omair Ali Source: Awojdyla Dr. Fadji Maina (left) with Dr. Eva Nogales (right) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2019. Growing up with water scarcity inspired Fadji Zaouna Maina, Ph.D., to undertake the extraordinary journey from Nigerien schoolgirl to NASA earth scientist. Maina was born and raised in Zinder, one of the largest… Read more »
Women in Niger Empowered to Initiate Divorce
by Barbara Goldberg Source: willemstom In January of 2019, NPR’s Rachel Martin interviewed Dionne Searcey, West Africa bureau chief for The New York Times, about a startling change in the social fabric of Niger: women now feel empowered to initiate a divorce. Prior to having safe water well in their rural village, Nigerien women walked… Read more »
Interview With Aminata Salifou Mody
By Elsa Sichrovsky Aminata Salifou Mody is a cultural ambassador whose passion is sharing the culture and beauty of her country, Niger, with the world. To find out more about her cultural celebration of Niger, I contacted her on Instagram and she graciously took time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions. Below… Read more »
COVID-19’s Severe Impact on Food Insecurity in Niger
By Omair Ali Source: UNICEF Niger//YouTube Like many nations around the globe, Niger is struggling to address many of its ongoing challenges during the pandemic-driven economic meltdown. Before the pandemic struck, many Nigeriens were already struggling to meet their most basic needs, but the economic effects of COVID-19 have made the situation more dire. Perhaps… Read more »
Did COVID-19 bring anything good to the Planet?
by Raphaela Barros Prado Source: Del-Uks For months now, the world has been suffering from COVID-19, and citizens across the globe have been trying to find unique ways to fight the pandemic and adapt to a strange new reality. The planet has also changed since this crisis began, and many of these changes have… Read more »
Boko Haram’s Devastating Impact
By Chidiebere Aguziendu & SatyaLakshmi Settem Source: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Boko Haram insurgency began in 2015 in the border region of Diffa. Though the attacks decreased in 2017 and 2018, the end of 2018 and 2019 saw an increase in violent attacks in the region. It has led to the death of… Read more »
History Repeats Itself
By Nick Baldry In an effort to encourage you, dear reader, to part with hard-earned cash for a water system for the Kelloum Bawa Health Care Facility in rural Niger, I’m going to take you to… Vienna General Hospital in around 1846. That seems like a logical route, right? Around this time, medicine was progressing… Read more »
Rethinking Womanhood: Childless in Niger
By Elsa Sichrovsky In a nation where the fertility rate is 7.5 children per woman[1]–the highest in the world–being childless is considered the mark of failure for a woman in Niger. Nigerien movie director Aicha Macky, herself struggling with infertility, bravely tackles the sensitive and painful social and psychological issues surrounding fertility in her first… Read more »
The Last Master: Malam Mamane Barka
By Elsa Sichrovsky In the 1980s, a teenaged teacher would often entertain locals in the town of Tesker, Niger by playing the ngurumi, a traditional instrument with a calabash shell body and iguana skin head[1] that is often used by the Toubou people of northern Niger. The Toubou schoolteacher went on to become headmaster of a… Read more »
