Children of the Sahara Foundation

The Children of the Sahara Foundation visited a nomad school in the Iriki region of the Sahara Desert on Sunday, November 23. The school location is ninety minutes by car from the nearest town of M’Hamid and is connected to a nomad camp where five to six families live during large parts of the year. We arrived by 4×4, driving through sandy pistes and sharp declines and turns navigated deftly by our colleague and desert expert, Abdoullah.

The school, created in 2002, has eighteen children enrolled between the ages of 3 and 13, all coming from families in the nomad camp. Women and children stay here during large parts of the year in winter time as it is situated close to the mountain plateau of Jebel Bani keeping temperatures mild. In the summer, the families move closer to the sand dunes of Erg Chegaga to take advantage of the cooling breeze. The men and fathers live away from the camp for weeks and months at a time to stay with the herds.

Their is only one teacher, Omar, who lives in a small tent connected to the school building from September to June when the school is open. Omar has one day off per week—Sundays. The school itself is just one small room without a toilet or hygiene facilities. It is constructed of sticks and small pieces of wood that can be found in this desert landscape.

Presently, funding for the school comes from an Italian association called Share: Human Life Project. There are benches and some desks for the children to sit; textbooks and other educational materials such as chalkboards, notebooks, pens and paper round out the supplies. The school also has a small athletic field outside although this is just a less rocky version of the regular desert salt field that makes up much of the land around the area.

The children have two textbooks each, French Reading and Math. Other texts in Arabic are shared among students. The children learn the Amazigh language from their families while Omar teaches them reading and writing in French and Arabic at the school. On hand is a small medical kit if the children get sick or have parasites. Omar says he is struggling to teach a total of 18 boys and girls by himself. Teaching a variety of ages and educational levels at the same time proves to be a challenging task.

One of the children from the school shows a drawing he made.

Omar, the school teacher.
Photos by Glen DiCrocco