Supporting Community Schools for Slave Children in Niger

Since 2007, Anti-Slavery International has been working with Timidria for the eradication of slavery in Niger through education for children of slave descent. The initial community schools programme funded by Comic Relief (2007-2012) saw the creation of six community schools in villages recently formed by people emerging from slavery. At the end of this period, lessons from the project (including the recommendations from the final evaluation and consultations with project beneficiaries and stakeholders) informed the strategy of the second phase of the community schools programme (2013-2017). In addition to sustaining and expanding the capacity of the six community schools, the current programme therefore focuses on the following: • Intensifying the collaboration between the project and the government to promote the integration of the community schools into the mainstream education system; • Facilitating and supporting children’s transition to secondary schools; • Promoting more State investment in villages formed by people of slave-descent, particularly to create new schools; • Advocating for multilateral agencies, development organisations and international rights mechanisms to prioritise descent slavery issues within their policy-making; • Conducting awareness-raising and advocacy trainings for the communities to encourage their direct involvement with policy-makers at the local and national level; • Increasing efforts to promote child participation through peer-support systems, mentoring and representation; • Maximising links between schools and communities through parents’ associations and mothers’ associations; • Expanding income-generation support, targeted at women, as a means to promote the communities’ economic independence.