I’m 16 and in 6th grade (equivalent of year seven in the UK system) at Tchintabaraden secondary school. I am the first one in the family to go to secondary school, and this makes my parents very proud.
I go to a boarding school away from my home village. I go to classes at the school in the morning and have a private lesson for one hour in the afternoon, I do my homework the rest of the time. As I have a heart condition, I can’t play sports with the other children. However, everyone else gets along and plays together here – both ‘Red Tamasheq’ and ‘Black Tamasheq’.
Life in my home village has changed a lot since the schools were built, they have made such a positive difference. People are now less poor and know so much more about their rights than before. However, I can only go back to my village during the school holidays, which I find difficult.
There are no slaves in my village any more. I did see there were slaves in a village near ours, and I felt really bad. I wanted to help them out but I couldn’t do anything. If I can be someone important like the President, I could do something to help these people.
My dream is to become the President of Niger. If I am the President, I would make sure there is enough food for Nigerien people, construct schools in every village, give a job to everyone, build new wells, and release people who are still in slavery.
Narrative courtesy of Anti-Slavery International
