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Project - Caravan to Class |
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Caravan to Class
www.caravantoclass.org
See our updated report on the school as it was completed.
Since 2010, Caravan to Class has been building schools in very carefully selected villages around Timbuktu, Mali, and supporting them (for a period of 3 years) by paying the teachers' salaries, procuring school supplies and providing lunches. Caravan to Class' focus is on reversing the injustice of illiteracy one village at a time. In Africa, one in three adults is illiterate. In Mali, the illiteracy rate is 75%, and in the villages in which Caravan to Class operates the illiteracy rate is often above 90%. Under their model they are able to educate a child in a government-approved school for a miniscule amount.
Timbuktu is really on the front lines of the world's fight against global extremist violence. Places like Timbuktu fight the true battle for tolerance almost every day. This fact makes the work of organizations like Caravan to Class more important than ever. It is the concrete actions of NGOs on the ground which help the local population maintain hope that the forces of tolerance can overcome the darkness that the extremist forces bring. It was Forix's decision that education is the best weapon against any extreme opinions which aided in our decision to fund the next school.
Caravan has already succeeded in building nine schools in Mali, with the people in the community participating in the building of the structure. Each school is a source of pride for the surrounding community and parents eagerly send their children, both girls and boys, to attend.
Their next school project has chosen the village of Bantam, where already a tent is set up as a temporary school with faculty and children attending in that space. Bantam is a small village of more than 1,000 inhabitants and roughly 120 to 150 children in the 6 to 12 year age range. This village has never had a school and is a good distance from the closest village with a school.
The Bantam school project will feature construction of a 3 classroom school building (in cement) outfitted with desks, chairs, and chalkboards. The school will be finished by year end 2016 or early 2017. The Forix grant will be used to purchase all the desks/chairs (for students), chalkboards, desks/chairs (for teachers) and school uniforms.
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