The Fulani Educational Center
One of our projects is dedicated to the nomadic tribe of the Fulanis, who live in our area and who are in fact our neighbours as we pass by them every day on our way to and from the airfield.
A little history of the Fulanis, is that many centuries ago, the vast number of Fulani tribes migrated from northern Africa and the Middle East into Central and West Africa. Today, most of them are semi-nomadic herdsmen who travel with their cattle, always searching for better grazing land. Today, as many as 18 million Fulani people are to be found in many West African countries and remain to be the largest group of transnational nomadic people in the world. Despite having an over 100 years long history of residence in Ghana, Fulani are considered "aliens" in the eyes of the state and "strangers" by the various ethnic groups among whom they reside.
In mid 2010 we made our first official visit with the attempt to improve their way of life, with their support, after having been in contact with them as neighbours over a couple of years through working on roads, drinking tea, chasing cows, tracking lost herds from the air, attending weddings and treating basic wounds. During several follow-up visits and meetings with the men as well as women and children of the community we shared their common problems and needs of every day life and tried to find durable solutions, which could improve their current and future life. Amongst the greatest needs we found were first aid and common health education, as living in the bush commonly leaves one with marks and cuts – however those minor injuries often turn into major infections due to mis- or non-treatment (and there are many steps to go from putting herbs and dirty rags in wounds to cleaning wounds with clean water and soap, using cream if necessary and plasters or bandages); hygiene issues in and around the houses, causing diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera; signs of malnourishment of the children due to a different diet that the Fulanis had to adapt to compared to living further North; and general education – our Fulani community speaks mainly Fufulde and consists of at least three generations of illiteracy. Only one adolescent is able to speak and write in English due to former exposure to school education, and one or two men and women in broken French, who had immigrated from French speaking Burkina Faso.
In our follow-up visits together with a volunteering nurse from the Volta River Authority (VRA) hospital in Akuse, Nurse Lydia, we provided the community with the knowledge of practical first aid procedures along with a suitable first aid kit we had composed for them and which is regularly used by the Fulanis. They also learned about hygiene and sanitation such as proper hand washing techniques prior eating and after being outside as an easy way to avoid faecal bacteria entering their body system as well as on how to treat their drinking water to make it safe, as their main source of drinking water is from an open fire hydrant point by the roadside. We also helped them to understand how to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), a system to get healthcare for most common sicknesses, pregnant women, children and elderly – a very difficult process for non-literate people as the process is bureaucratic and complicated. We also taught them different preparations of their dishes in combination with simple add-ons for higher nutrition, such as the use of fish, which is not common to them, and how important a balanced diet as well as milk intake is for infants.
Having most of the very urgent needs covered by few visits and follow-ups to check on practical use and adherence, we came to the conclusion that the lack of EDUCATION in general had caused all of the above issues and was the long term challenge to be addressed to reach about major improvements in the Fulanis’ every day lives.
The elders are responsible for teaching tribal values and traditions, telling tribal stories to the next generation - the tradition of oral story telling remains very common due to high illiteracy rates. To the Fulani, children are the future – which is a great value for us to build on. The next local school is five to six kilometres away and most families of the community can barely afford to send their children – even though the main tuition fees in Ghana are free up to end of Junior Secondary School (JSS)l, the daily costs of transportation and small payments here and there lay a great burden upon families. Hence, Fulani children begin to learn their roles very early: boys follow their fathers to learn how to tend the cattle or work in the maize field during the rainy season. When the boys reach the age of about 10 they are put in charge of following the cattle. Girls also help with the cattle by milking them and preparing Wagashi. Other common jobs for young girls is gathering firewood and helping to look after their younger siblings. Girls are taught by the older women how to be a good wife when they are married.
Hence, their knowledge is mostly what one would call indigenous knowledge – culturally based and handed down orally.
On a more or less regular basis, we tried to give some basic education to the Fulani children, and we are trying to encourage the adults to join in, especially the ladies, in some basic English, reading and basic healthcare – all in one. Despite their eagerness and willingness to learn, they are lacking in what we might call techniques of learning – sitting down and learning things is very foreign to them. Additionally the general set-up of having everyone attend who wants to learn together, was rather chaotic – children playing around, infants screaming and crying, distracting children and adults in their learning. We also found that a bi/tri-weekly visit was not enough and timing was rather difficult, as Fulanis do not adhere to a certain date, often not even to the days of a week and their day starts with duties as early as 04:30 am – even earlier for the women during Ramadan, a time of fasting for Muslims.
It was some of the more innovative Fulani men, who in December 2010 came up with the idea to establish a designated area, a small shack of sticks and roofing for the children (and adults) to learn in. A great idea as we found, which fixes the idea of learning in a particular and central spot, away from “under a tree”, giving some discipline.
By the end of January 2011 the Fulani Educational Center was erected, five meters long and three meters wide – enough to accommodate 30 children! By taking down their names, we were able to identify and “register” 28 children under 15 in the area.
Most are under 8 years and only four are less than 2 or 3 years old. Since then, every Monday morning, we are trying to get the Fulani children to learn an alphabet of a language they do not speak and mathematic concepts they can barely grasp. Most kids have had no exposure to numbers, letters or any visual educational stimulation – but we can see improvements every week! After the first few sessions Cindy, our volunteer teacher, was able to split them up into groups according to levels. A few young women are now also attending more or less regularly, requiring different learning approaches and topics for them.
Our goal is to enable these young kids to reach a level of basic education, where they have the desire to and the ability required to integrate and attend a formal school. By May 2011, three of the children got enrolled into public school by their parents. We hope that this will encourage other families to follow. We hope that the parents get the idea, that our Education Center can provide help with basic literacy and health education, but not full education ... with three children successfully enrolled, they are also finding out, that school is a lot more accessible than they previously thought. However, the transportation remains a challenge.
So currently we have 26 children registered in our Fulani Educational Center and we keep on encouraging the young mothers to attend as well, as they will learn along with their children – allowing such basic capabilities of reading and understanding their correct drug dosage on bottles from the hospital, the ability to read health posters and other relevant information – but also to understand and realise how important education is for their children and for their future. In June we were able to have a representative of the government sponsored National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) visit the Center and speak about the young Fulani women’s opportunities under this programme, which also gives vocational training to under privileged people who had little or no education. Two young women have been registered to be trained as seamstresses. We are also trying to establish a ladies class before the children’s class on Monday mornings, but Monday is market day and it remains a challenge for them to cut out an hour or two off their daily duties. Hopefully we will find a durable solution for a non-market day.
Despite the success we still face challenges. We really need to get there more than once a week. We have been looking at getting a fulltime teacher, as today’s two volunteers once a week are not enough. We would then be able to do classes for everybody – but it is a difficult balance, as our aims are not to educate people literally, but rather give them the ability to look after themselves with basic healthcare needs. We need to find a solution to give the people there the attention they need.
As you can see on the pictures, students have no tables to write on. The guys bring benches and if they had tables they would bring them.
They have not one table in the whole Fulani community – they eat on the floor, prepare food perched on stones and stools, and this is something they cannot afford and something we cannot afford to sub for them right now. It would probably cost around GHS 250 (EUR 115; USD 165) to get enough tables and benches for the hut.
As we experience in the rainy season, the classroom floor gets very muddy, having already caused one cancellation due to the unusable condition of the hut. We are looking at cementing the floor, hopefully within the next few weeks. But rainy season is also the season for cultivating the crops, which is why we are also facing a drop in attendance during these times.
We have no doubt that this project is making a difference in this community. Even when classes end, and volunteers are about to leave, the students remain seated and hesitate to go home. Their eagerness and excitement to learn is almost tangible in their eyes. There could be future doctors and lawyers among our Fulani kids, potentials that need to be fostered with knowledge and good health to let them develop their real potentials. If they can at the very least learn to read and write and look after themselves when they have basic ailments, so many aspects of their lives will change.
On the ground of the Fulani Educational Center MoM change lives one visit at a time!
