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| Flag Description |
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green
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| Hope Academy, Nigeria |
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Infant mortality rate: |
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total: 94.35 deaths/1,000 live births
country comparison to the world: 11
male: 100.38 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 87.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
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CLEAR BLUE has responded by fulfilling the requests made by Phyllis. We will keep you posted on new developments.
 A request from Phyllis Sorter,
Outstanding FM Missionary in
Kogi State, Nigeria
Please contact us at clearbluefmc@clearblueproject.org or clearbluefmc@clearblueproject.com if you are
interested in sponsoring this project.
Free Methodist World Missions has been given the unique opportunity of providing a Christian boarding school and medical clinic for nomadic, Muslim Fulani children in Kogi State, Nigeria. What are the specific needs being addressed at this school?
EDUCATION
Less than ten percent of Fulani men and less than two percent of Fulani women are literate. Education among the Fulani falls far below the national average.
Although the government has spent millions of naira in nomadic education programs, many factors make educational planning and student monitoring difficult: high costs, poor and uninhabitable facilities, low salaries that do not attract high caliber staff committed to educational enrichment of the Fulani, scarcity of supplies (chalks, books, pencils, and blackboards), the uncertainty of the migrations of the Fulani. Few teachers can endure the rigorous movement of the Fulani. Therefore many quickly drop out of the work force.
Another serious impediment to the children’s education is that unlike farmers who use child labor marginally, the Fulani rely heavily and continuously on children for labor. A Fulani man will not send his child to school even if an adult is available to tend the animals because the child needs to learn the herding skills.
But we believe our program has a very good chance of success. Why? Following a year long personal friendship with an influential Fulani chief and his tribe, we have been invited by the Fulani people themselves to build a school (Hope Academy School) that will provide boarding facilities for their children. Here the children can live and go to school while their fathers/parents follow their migratory routes. This chief’s determination to educate these children has the support of nine other Fulani clan heads in the area.
The Fulani are taking ownership of this project through their purchase of a school generator as well as their commitment to care for, feed, and provide temporary housing for the children until dormitories are available. Quality teachers will be hired from nearby Lokoja who will teach to their heritage—veterinary medicine, care of cows and sheep, etc.—so that the Fulani will feel strengthened and empowered even further. An educational committee is already in place to monitor and keep the program on task to target goals. Educational supplies, textbooks and library books will be available for all through purchase and/or donations.
Adult education will be in place to train Fulani men and women in literacy and to provide information on the importance of education in a changing society and economy.
WATER
Among the nomadic Fulani people of Kogi State, two in ten children die before reaching five years of age, mainly due to water-related diseases such as chronic diarrhea. Due to the lack of access to safe water, Fulani are forced to drink from polluted streams or stagnant pools infested with visible and invisible worms and parasites. Providing safe water is the deciding factor in whether or not we will be able to open our ‘Head Start’ program for Fulani children in January, 2008.
Digging since June, 2007, we have reached a depth of 60 feet, by blasting through layer after layer of hard rock. We are not sure how much farther down we will need to go to reach water. Although this well was originally a gift from Operation Blessing, an arm of CBN in Nigeria, their budget for this project has long since been depleted, necessitating using school funds for continued blasting and digging, school funds which were earmarked for the purchase of desks, tables, blackboards and school supplies. We need your help, if we are to have water by January and still provide the necessary facilities and supplies to the children.
What is needed now?
To continue blasting and digging until we find water, then to secure the well, cap and fit it with submersible pumps, (one manual, one electric to ensure availability of water at all times,) provide a tower with two large water tanks and the necessary plumbing will cost approximately $4,000. Everything the Free Methodist Mission does at this school is an expression of the love of God for the Fulani people of Kogi State, a love which we know will  draw many Fulani to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Providing water, the physical water needed to sustain mortal life, and the Living Water needed for eternal life, is the most important thing we can do. We thank God that this project is at the core of God’s heart, and that He will, through all of you, provide whatever is needed to make sure that it succeeds.
Thank you and God bless you,
Phyllis M. Sortor, Missionary
Kogi State, Nigeria
Please contact us at clearbluefmc@yahoo.com if you are
interested in sponsoring this project.
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