Empower girls in Niger for change via education

Girls should take part in competitive sports to build confidence and resilience, points out Mr Mamane, the physical education teacher at Hampaté Bâ Middle School.

Through sports, Hampaté Bâ School teaches girls to face setbacks and find ways to spring back and recover. Discipline, confidence and resilience are built through practising competitive sports.

"The experience of losing a volleyball game and carrying on to another match builds resilience. And our girls need this because in our society they experience a lot of setbacks due to gender bias", says Mr Mamane.

Not all girls like ball games of course and so the school is trying to find alternatives.

I don’t want to be out on the football pitch or play volleyball ball", says Halima. Maybe my friends and I could have a trampoline!! We have seen it on television and jumping on it seems like great fun!

Confidence is an athlete’s and a girl’s best friend. It is also a core mental skill because of its impact on other parts of one’s life, like school and relationships with family and friends.

Halima is a typical teenager in many ways. A typical weekend for her involves listening to music, getting together with friends, and although she doesn’t love all the subject matters taught in school, she knows that education is the foundation for her future. Playing sports helps her gain confidence and confidence in turn helps her with her education.

Perseverance, patience, and balancing time and energy are the challenging components of playing a sport and studying at Hampaté Bâ. For Halima and her friends, the special girl empowerment classes at Hampaté Bâ School create opportunities to achieve in many areas. The Girl Empowerment class enables these girl students to increase their physical and mental strength, build their social skills, and teach them the value of hard work in pursuit of a goal.

 “Attending this school made me realize who I really am,” says Halima “I’m proud to be a girl and later, once I finish school, I would like to make things easier for women in my country.”

THANK YOU for supporting the Hampaté Bâ special programs to help our girls evolve and have enough confidence in being a woman to move ahead and initiate dynamic projects in their community. Their potential is grand and their hopes are high. Your donations are key in keeping these girls in school with quality education including sports and innovative girl oriented programs. We need your support more than ever in our quest to fight ignorance with education. Your continued donations will enable us to provide our girl students with what they need to pursue their education. Let’s keep it up ! Every donation you make is changing a girl’s life and you are making a real difference . Thank you !!