Project Title: Learning and Earning Programs (LEGS)

Location: Niger

Grant Amount: $36,066

Grantee Website: www.rain4sahara.org

Areas of Impact: Education & Literacy, Environmental Sustainability & Climate Action, Leadership Development

Mission of RAIN for the Sahel and Sahara
RAIN forges partnerships with underserved rural and nomadic desert communities of West Africa to realize their ambitions for education and enduring livelihoods.

Summary
Dining for Women will help support RAIN’s Learning and Earning Programs (LEGS) that create educational opportunities for at-risk girls and empower nomadic women through learning new livelihoods. RAIN offers education, income generative activities, mentoring, and economic development training to support this vulnerable community in rural Niger.

The program objectives are:

• To teach local women the advantages of education, later marriage, smaller families, hygiene and gender roles so they may effectively counsel and advocate for at-risk girls.
• To offer girls traditional skills classes that enhance the attraction of school for parents and offer the students possible future incomes.
• To have more girls attend schools each year.
• To have mentors develop Savings and Loan Associations or goat herding to support their mentoring activities and improve livelihoods.

DFW’s grant will pay for mentoring programs for five communities (salary, transport, food, workshop materials), income generating activity for mentors, and training, monitoring and evaluation of programs (food, vehicle rentals), and some operational costs.


Why We Love This
RAIN works with a unique nomadic community in one of the poorest countries in the world. New and innovative methods such as loans, gardening training, animal husbandry, and artisan support are utilized to empower the women/girls of this community.