Brilliant But Needy

“Brilliant But Needy” – A name that is very to the point but very apt for what it is. Every year, selected students from Nabdam district, who are transitioning into Senior High School, are awarded with a 300 Cedis grant (about €50) which comes from private donations. This year, 34 students were chosen based on, as you might expect, their academic achievements and the socio-economic situation of their families. This includes 14 continuous recipients, and 20 new beneficiaries, most of whom have just completed Junior High School. Being a high achiever from a poor family is not a commonly found combination here.

Although the answer as to why that is is probably quite obvious, allow me to shed a bit more light from my own observations here over the last 2 months. The families of these children earn little to no money. The majority of them have parents or guardians who are subsistence farmers. Mostly millet and groundnuts because they are easy to grow and preserve. Maize is an option if you have some money. Some will grow tomatoes, but they require wet, fertile lands and will spoil quickly. Everything else is found in small quantities. The farms don’t have the capacity to produce enough crops that they can be sold, as everything that is grown is kept to sustain the family until the next harvest season. Even then, it’s unlikely to be enough. Harvest season is just ending now and we are entering the dry season. Men and women will start to leave the village to find work in the cities so they can earn enough money to buy necessities for the family, or food to make up the shortfall from the harvest. While food has been ‘plentiful’ lately, 1 meal a day won’t be uncommon for the next 6 months.

Some of the Brilliant But Needy 2019/20 recipients

Selected primary schools have feeding programmes but not all of them. Junior High School students will not be fed. But hungry bellies in school is just where it begins. While education might be a human right, it’s difficult to expect a person who is fighting to feed their family to prioritise school books, pens and uniforms – things which I know I personally have taken for granted my whole life. But take them away and you will see the effects. No matter how brilliant a mind may be, if it is not nourished, it won’t develop. That’s the sad and inevitable fate for many of these kids.

But it’s also what makes the kids who make it through the system that is fighting against them so exceptionally impressive. Each of them have had to overcome their obstacles in different ways. Some work mornings before school and night times after. Others on weekends and holidays. Some borrow their friends’ school books and spend the night hand copying the contents before they must return it. The common thing they all share is that they all have a genuine desire and hunger to learn, and they will take every opportunity to do so.

 Georgina, a Brilliant But Needy recipient, and her mother

Something which can’t be overstated is the importance of the families behind these students. They make or break these kids’ futures. Without their support it would be nigh on impossible for these young people to succeed in education. For obvious financial reasons, but also in the attitudes that they pass on to the younger generations. They know what it is like to live a life void of an education and full of poverty, struggling from harvest to harvest, meal to meal. Perhaps the greatest gift they give to their children is to teach them the value of education. In the words of one Brilliant But Needy beneficiaries and their families:

“With an education, no one can treat you as if you are nobody.”

“It equips us with knowledge and skills to help us live meaningful lives in society.”

“We hope that they will not have to face the same problems we did and will have a better future.”

Interviewing a beneficiary about his motivations for learning

But let us not get ahead of ourselves. It’s comforting, though misguided, to believe that giving people an education will guarantee a better future. It won’t. There will still be a lot of barriers in their path. I hope they do become the nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers and all else they want to become. But first they will still need to struggle and fight and scrape their way over the hill to bring about that better life for them, families and their communities they wish for. There was one student who put it far more eloquently than I could:

           

“Education is not the key to success, but it does unlock many doors of opportunity”

And that’s what Brilliant But Needy is all about. An opportunity. Just a chance to fulfil their potential and live something better.