This photo pictures Dicko, the daughter of my friend, Bandaado. When I left Bele Kwara in 1997, she was just a baby!

Bele Kwara, Niger, West Africa

When I lived in Bele Kwara in the late 1990s, it it was a tiny village of only about 40 people. When I returned to visit 10 years later, it had mushroomed into a teeming village of some 100 people! (OK, perhaps "teeming" is exaggerating, but it was such a big difference!) But what made me the happiest was to see a school. When I lived in Bele Kwara, none of the children attended school, and worse yet, their parents didn't believe in the importance of a formal education. To come back ten years later to see that every child in the village was in school, including Dicko, pictured here, brought tears to my eyes. Dicko has a chance that her mother, my friend Bandaado, never had.

The school had two classrooms with two teachers, who lived in the village. Since I visited in the summer, I only met one of the teachers, as the second teacher had returned to her home for the break. What amazed me even further was that another village three kilometers down the road also had a school, and another village three kilometers in the opposite direction boasted yet a third school! I was told by the new Country Director for Peace Corps Niger that this isn't the case throughout the country, but to see the difference in Bele Kwara was a feeling that I shall never forget.

Ref: 2007_4094 (Sepia)

Location: Bele Kwara, Niger

Photographer: Irene Abdou