John Soloninka- President Gabriella Maertens- VP Penni St. Hilaire- Secretary Larry Koff- Treasurer Jude Andreasen- Member At Large Sue Rosenfeld- Niger Liaison Steve Bushell- Webmaster
The Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project is a non-profit corporation created by the sister and mother of fallen Niger Peace Corps volunteer Jeremiah Mack to honor volunteers who died in service.
The site was created in 2004, and has grown to include fallen volunteers from many countries, including five PCV's from Niger. In all, 271 volunteers have died while serving as volunteers.
In addition to the site, the organization seeks to create a permanent physical memorial honoring all fallen volunteers.
Those attending the 35th Anniversary of Peace Corps in Niger in July 1997 were moved to revitalize the almost defunct Friends of Niger group, which had been started by Meredith McGehee; a balance of $6,000 remained in a bank account in Washington, DC. The process took almost a year and now ten years later seems like a good time to look back and celebrate the accomplishments of Friends of Niger as Niger has just celebrated the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps in Niger.
Please have a look at our About FON page to see the list of our accomplishments, from the beginnings of the web site and newsletter, to famine relief and fund raising for a variety of projects,.
The link is also found at the top-left of every page on our site.
Peace Corps Week is an opportunity for returned Volunteers and their extended Peace Corps family - staff, friends and family of Volunteers, as well as friends of the Peace Corps - to partake in promoting cross-cultural understanding, world peace, and friendship by shining a spotlight on the important work of our Volunteers around the world and the continuing service that returned Volunteers bring to communities in the United States.
Produced by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin, the International Calendar is back for 2008 with another collection of beautiful photographs.
You can order the calendar for $12 each, or two or more for $10 each. Please see our order form on the Join FON page for details on how to order.
Proceeds from the calendar sales will support Friends of Niger's projects in Niger. Order now, supplies are limited and you don't want to miss out!
December 2007 Camel Express Available Online
Click here (PDF, 2.1 MB) for the latest edition of the Camel Express, including stories and news, from and about Niger.
In May of 2007 the USPS eliminated International Surface Mail which was used by many organizations and individuals to support important grass-roots humanitarian projects around the world.
Friends of Niger has joined the movement to petition the US Congress to reverse this change. Click here to see our open letter to the House Committee overseeing the Postal Service, pleading with them to reconsider this unfortunate change that will affect many small but important organizations.
Partnership With Peace Corps Niger And Friends Of Niger Supports Young Girls Scholarship Program
On Friday, September 28th, and Saturday, September 29th, the EstroGenius Festival will present Voices Of Africa, a cross cultural collaboration with Peace Corps Niger, and Friends of Niger, to benefit the Young Girls Scholarship Program (YGSP). Voices of Africa features stories, poems, and songs written by Nigerien young women and performed by New York City teenagers at Manhattan Theatre Source.
The program was created by Ginger O'Neil, a former EstroGenius Festival volunteer currently serving a two year Peace Corps appointment in Niger. Ginger teaches reading and writing along with music classes to young women in her village, Birni N'Gaoure, and throughout Niger. She has transcribed her students' words, poems, and stories and sent them to New York City to be performed by teenage girls.
Voices of Africa performances will be held Friday, September 28 at 6:00 pm and Saturday, September 28 at 2:30 pm at Manhattan Theatre Source (177 MacDougal Street, between Waverly Pl. & W. 8th St; Subway: A/C/E or B/D/F/V to W 4th St.). Tickets are $15 at http://www.theatresource.org or (212) 260-4698.
All proceeds benefit the Young Girls Scholarship Program which provides academic scholarships to Nigerien girls.
August 2007 Camel Express Available Online
Click here (PDF, 1.9 MB) for the latest edition of the Camel Express, including stories and news, from and about Niger.
Young Girls Scholarship Program
Conference Photos Posted
Click here to see recent photos from the Young Girls Scholarship Program Annual Conference.
To read more about the Young Girls Scholarship Program, check out the August issue of the Camel Express (PDF, 1.9 MB).
RPCV Career Planning Conference
Scheduled for September 4-7, 2007
Next week, Peace Corps' Office of Domestic Programs, Returned Volunteer Services, will host an RPCV Career Planning Conference. The conference is a week-long series of free events focused on job searching and career resources for recently returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
The events will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 4 and will continue through Friday, Sept. 7.
All sessions will be held in Washington, DC.
Pre-registration is required for the sessions.
Please feel free to post the flyer and/or share copies of it with RPCVs in your network.
More information on the RPCV Career Planning Conference can be found at http://www.peacecorps.gov/rpcv/events.
Peace Corps / Niger 45th Anniversary
Pagne Design Released
Visit our movies page to see more previews of Dan's movies and find out how you can see the entire movie.
Peace Corps Wiki is Up and Running
The Peace Corps Wiki is a collaborative project whose goal is to create a free, interactive, and up-to-date source of information about serving as a volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps. Anyone is welcome to edit, add, or change any entry, or start a new one. So far there are a total of 260 pages that have been written and edited by (R)PCVs and Friends of Peace Corps from around the world.
Note that the contents of the Peace Corps Wiki are generated by the public, and do not reflect any official position of the U. S. Government or the U. S. Peace Corps. Nevertheless, the wiki has the potential for becoming an invaluable source of information for anyone seeking knowledge about the Peace Corps and the countries of service.
The Peace Corps staff in Niger is preparing to celebrate the 45th year of Peace Corps in Niger, including a series of activities and events taking place in September.
For questions or more information, please contact Christopher Burns in the Niger Peace Corps office at cburns@ne.peacecorps.gov.
NPR Explores Niger's Climate and Culture
National Public Radio has produced a few short but informative videos on climate change, with one video featuring Niger, and focusing on a recent well-known story about how trees are finally returning to the desert:
We at the Friends of Niger are looking for someone who can volunteer their time to help build our membership base.
Join us, and be part of a small organization seeking to make a difference in the lives of Nigeriens. The more members we have, the more we can accomplish. We need your help now!
Mercy Corps is giving special attention to Niger's ongoing cycle of hunger in their fundraising efforts, calling it one of the world's "Silent Disasters".
Long months of hunger between meager harvests hold Niger's families in a brutal grip. Mercy Corps is helping them break free.
Successive poor harvests put more than 3.5 million Nigeriens - about 20 percent of that country's entire population - at risk for chronic malnutrition and other dire health problems. Children, already Niger's most vulnerable population, have been most affected of all. Today, Mercy Corps is working to help determined Nigeriens build locally sustainable, resilient health and nutrition networks so that communities can cope with crisis - and mothers can provide a healthier future for their young children.
Please take some time to look at the work Mercy Corps is doing in Niger and around the world.
US Postal Service Eliminates International Surface Mail
Grass roots organizations impacted by rate changes; sign the petition to bring back Surface Mail!
On May 14, 2007 the USPS eliminated International Surface Mail which was used by many organizations and individuals to support meaningful, humanitarian projects around the world.
A movement is underway to petition the US Congress to reverse this change. Please join us and sign the petition so that our collective voice can be heard.
Recently Boston University students Magali Carette and Sarah Garton spent some time with Habsou Aboubacar, who runs Tin-Hinan, a non-governmental organization supported in part by Friends of Niger.
Sarah sent us the following report, along with a few pictures, after their stay in Niger. Read the Tin-Hinan Update:
Nigerien Film Maker Seeks Niger RPCVs for Video Documentary
A Nigerien who was a language teacher for PC Niger (1990) is currently in the US on a fellowship for foreign journalists.
He sends the following message - please contact him if you are interesting in helping.
Since 1990, I've been a journalist and a communicator, owning a communications agency called Les Echos du Sahel, and dealing [with the] rural world and development (printing, broadcasting, training, advising, etc.).
I arrived in the U.S. last June on behalf of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program.
One of the aims of this fellowship funded by the State department of the USA is to allow mid-careers professionals from the developing world a year of rewarding experiences and studies in the U.S. so that they can benefit academically and professionally.
One of my projects is to make a video documentary about RPCVs who are still involved with Niger in one way or another.
But all my attempts to reach these folks have been unsuccessful.
The idea is: after 45 years of a successful presence in Niger, some RPCVs have kept contact with their host country, in the spirit of the program created by President Kennedy.
Whether they work in civil society or as individuals, I want to portray them in their daily life and show how they continue to impact and improve the reality or the image of Niger.
My host university is the Philip Merrill school of Journalism (University of Maryland - College Park) where I am currently enrolled in Broadcasting and International Development studies.
I will be staying in the US until next June.
Please feel free to contact me for questions.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sai An Jima!
Ibbo Daddy Abdoulaye
Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow
Philip Merrill School of Journalism
1117 Journalism Building
University of Maryland-College Park
Maryland, MD 20742
Phone: 301-405-2003
Fax: 301-405-9385
Email: ibbo_daddy@yahoo.com
Welsh Teen Siriol Teifi Inspired Into Action After Visit To Niger
A welsh teenager was so moved by her experience in visiting a Médecins Sans Frontières project in the world's poorest country that she has set up an online account with justgiving.com so that people can finance the project.
18 year-old Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi sixth-former, Siriol Teifi visited Niger in February of 2007 to see for herself the situation 16 months after the terrible famine of Autumn 2005.
Back in November 2005, Siriol raised 2000 UK pounds for Christian Aid's Niger appeal by fasting for a week at school.
Now Siriol has set up a web page and an online account with justgiving.com so visitors can make donations online to Médecins Sans Frontières with all the funds raised going to the Project in Maradi in the name of the people of Wales.
Click here to read more and donate to the cause: http://cymorthniger.com/ (Click the "English" link on the new page to read it in English.)
Thinking of Joining Friends of Niger?
Now is the time!
Friends of Niger is now offering a free year of membership for first-time members.
Together we can make a difference in the lives of Nigeriens.
Click here to join FON today!
Niger Making Progress, Struggling With Population Growth
The New York Times has a nice article discussing the progress Niger has made against desertification over the past few decades, while continuing to deal with a fast growing population.
The Frends of Niger discussion boards are back!
Please stop in to say hi, talk about Niger, look for old friends, makes some new ones, or just post your thoughts about life in the Sahel.
Fund Raisers planned for San Francisco and Washington DC to Support Boarding House
Virginia Emmons is the co-founder and director of Educate Tomorrow, an international non-profit organization seeking to provide equitable access to education for all people
Virginia is also a Niger RPCV, and is helping to organize fundraisers in San Francisco and Washington DC whose main goal is to raise money for a boarding house in Kirtachi, Niger.
When the Peace Corps left the Kirtachi region, the Peace Corps and the Nigerien government agreed to donate the former Peace Corps hostel and land to the project.
Now, money is needed to convert and operate the hostel so that middle-school students from the region who live in far away villages can stay in the hostel, enabling them to attend school regularly.
Students from Kabey Fo, a village 25 kilometers away from the nearest middle school, will be the first beneficiaries of the project.
The fund raisers will include wine tasting and silent auctions. Items to be auctioned include a cruise, a week at a beach house, art work, wine, and more. Organizers are still accepting donations for the silent auctions.
Event Dates:
San Francisco: August 18, 2006
Washington DC: September 8, 2006
To volunteer, make a donation, or for general information, please contact Virginia Emmons at info@educatetomorrow.org.
FON Supports Micro-credit Projects in Niger
At the March 12, 2006 meeting of the Board of Directors of Friends of Niger, the board voted to allocate the sum of $500 to a newly formed NGO, Tin-Hinan.
In the past year FON members have contributed over $1000 earmarked for micro-credit projects.
RPCV Sue Rosenfeld will present the check to this organization on behalf of FON when she returns to Niger in late April.
Tin-Hinan is a non-profit registered with the government of Niger.
The founder and president of this organization is a Tuarag woman, Habsatou Aboubacar.
Rural women in Niger encounter enormous difficulties, among others, the lack of sources of revenue because of lack of means and time to take part in activities that will generate revenue and permit them to be financially independent.
Our donation will help finance the micro-credit operation for the women of Goroubi in the Tillabery Region to enable the women of this region to provide for their needs and the needs of their children.
For more information on this project, contact Gabriella Maertens at gmaertens@earthlink.net.
Niger Fundraiser a Success!
Lamine Touré
On February 25th, The Homegrown Coffeehouse in Needham, MA, a suburb of Boston, presented A Night of West African Music as a fundraiser for Niger.
Three West African musical groups came together to play to a standing room only crowd.
The groups included the Agbekor Society playing high energy polyrhythmic traditional music from Ghana and Togo, The JAG Drum and Dance Ensemble featuring special guest Mohammed Kalifa Camara performing traditional music from his homeland of Guinea, and Lamine Touré and Group Saloum fusing Senegalese mbalax with elements of jazz, funk, reggae and Afro-pop.
Drumming and singing filled the room as more than 250 people enjoyed the show and were moved to clap, sing and dance in the isles.
All of the groups donated their performances and 100% of proceeds, over $4300, were donated to Oxfam America.
Niger RPCV Sheri Kennedy Raising Money for Oxfam
After reading about the food crisis in Niger, Sheri Kennedy, a Niger RPCV currently working as a professional artist in the Boston area, was inspired to create a painting as a fundraiser.
"The painting is done from a photo of my villagers outside Dossey, north of Birni n'Konni", Kennedy says, "and is called Tilling the Soil, Dossey, Niger."
High-quality giclée reproductions of the painting are available for $40 (plus shipping). Approximtely $10 of the proceeds of each print will be forwarded on to Oxfam.
"The more prints are ordered, the more the printing costs drop, and therefore the more will go to Oxfam.
Please pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested in buying art to feed Niger."
Prints can be ordered at Sheri's Art-Think web site:
FON has begun a campaign to reopen the USAID mission in Niamey.
Please see our letter to Andrew Natsios (the USAID administrator), then contact John Soloninka (FON's president) if you want to get involved in our efforts.
Tuaregs in Abalak Still Waiting for Aid
Ingrid Patetta, a filmmaker residing in New York, recently returned from the Abalak region in the northern Tahoua department.
She has produced an excellent 7-minute video on behalf of Tagaste, a small NGO that is trying to bring the current plight of Tuareg nomads to the world's attention.
She is making the film available on the Internet, and she is interested in partnering with Friends of Niger around the U.S. to organize public screenings of the film to raise funds for Tagaste's work with the people of Abalak, many of whom have yet to receive assistance in the year-old food crisis.
