Gaoura is a born leader. She makes friends easily, and she has quite a fan following in her slum community. One of the reasons they gravitated to her was because she chewed tobacco. The habit was considered cool, and Gaoura could do it in style.
For all her popularity, seven-year-old Gaoura had picked up a dangerous and addictive habit. In her community, chewing tobacco was known to cause mouth, tongue, gum and cheek cancers, yet the little girl went right on.
In 2017, your donations enabled our community workers to survey Gaoura’s slum community and find her as well as many other children who were out of school. She was admitted into our bridging class, yet she hardly ever turned up. She preferred the streets to classes.
Last year though, Gaoura’s mother brought her to our learning centre once again. Her mother and father cut grass for a living, and it takes both their incomes to keep their family of six afloat.
With no one at home to look after Gaoura, and since she didn’t go to school, Gaoura was vulnerable to the dangers facing little girls wandering alone in the streets of a slum community.
Her parents desperately wanted a better future for her, and that’s exactly what you have given her.
In this second innings, Gaoura has begun to take interest in education, and she’s regular to class. She takes a while to understand things, but she tries her best.
Her biggest breakthrough though has been breaking free of her tobacco habit. Your gifts of education, and the trust she’s built with our staff have freed Gaoura into a hope-filled future.
Her parents have benefitted too! They regularly attend our medical camps in their community, and Gaoura’s mother is working on breaking her tobacco habit too! She’s even begun a piggy bank practice at home, thanks to all the personal finance wisdom she’s received at our community training
Because of your gifts and support, this family is taking big strides into a more empowered life!
