Some of the girls who benefited from the scholarships run by Plan International, while attending the Teachers’ Training School (Ecole Nationale des Enseignants du Primaire – ENEP) are now full active workers. One of them is Alima, who lost both her mother and father at 14, and along with her two brothers was placed in the care of her grandmother and there was a point in her life when she had absolutely nothing to live on. Alima received her scholarship at a time when she felt completely helpless and also had no hope for the future. Today, she looks mature, composed, and walks with self-assurance and her face lights up as she tells us about her progress. Her first year as a teacher was a challenge that she bravely took up before coming down to Ouagadougou, the capital city for a well-deserved holiday. Alima was posted in a small village called Beuni, situated in the Centre East region. The typhoid fever that kept her away from school for two years has meant that has had to put aside, for the time being, the great ambition she nurtured when she was younger of becoming a lawyer. However, Alima hasn’t given up on that dream altogether. In September 2008, a professional primary school teacher, fresh from school with a certificate Alima enthusiastically set about her work in the village of Beuni, to help teach small girls and boys read, write and count. Once there, she experienced the harsh living conditions of teaching in a village school, far away from the city where she was born and grew up. However, the suffering she went through herself has made her stronger to cope with difficult situations. Her classroom was situated under a thatch shelter, with a makeshift blackboard. Although she was shocked at first at the conditions, Alima was quickly enchanted by the small children’s cheerful desire to learn. Moreover, she was won over by the innocent faces waiting impatiently outside her home and then quickly and noisily running to their seats as she set out for the classroom; waiting eagerly to utter the words “Bonjour Madame” in a singing tone. That year Alima´s students were 3rd graders, but they still could not read or write. She realized they had a lot to catch up on and was determined to make sure that the children caught up so that they could take their first lessons. She decided to work extra hours with the children and her devotion paid off; in the end most of the children reached the results she was aiming for. Both her colleagues and the parents noticed it and this earned her a lot of respect and friendship in the village. In addition to educating their children, the students’ parents asked Alima to reorganize their students’ mothers association. She responded positively and the association became a dynamic organization. Asked why she agreed to take on that extra responsibility, she answered “Once you have benefited from the generosity of others, the way Plan offered me a scholarship at a moment in time when I thought all perspectives were lost for me, you can’t close your heart to other people; you cannot break the chain of generosity, and I feel that I should also help others within my own capacities.”
