Caravan To Class News

On the afternoon of Sunday, February 17th, Hamadou Toure, local partner of Caravan to Class, and I met with the five recipients of the “Bourse Jackie” Scholarship in the courtyard of my B&B. The five women were selected by ranking the highest on our scoring system, which included their school grades, a writing sample, and a test we administered. It was important for us to have an objective determination of the final recipients so as to completely rule out any favoritism. The initial applicant pool was roughly 50 young women, and we administered an exam to the 12 finalists. The average score of the 12 twelve finalists was 70.2, with the lowest at 47.1 and the highest at 98. The average score of the 5 scholarship recipients was 81.2.

I was very impressed with all five of the Bourse Jackie recipients, and with two of them in particular. As they warmed up, the level of engagement was very high and their enthusiasm, motivation, and intelligence definitely made a strong impression on me. Our process seems to have chosen the perfect recipients.
 

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FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Dear friends,

Whenever the question pops into my head about how long I might continue to move Caravan to Class forward, a day like today answers the question very easily. It is no exaggeration to say that my favorite day of the year is the day I spend touring the villages where Caravan to Class has built schools. Today, on Valentine’s Day, I did just that. Specifically, I visited the village of Nanga where Caravan to Class just finished building our 13th school, and also the village of Bokoi-Koiria where Caravan to Class plans to rehabilitate a school in 2019.

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

The Nanga school construction and operational support project:

Caravan to Class will build our 13th school in the village of Nanga and provide operational support for three years. Operational support will include paying teachers’ salaries, providing basic nutrition for school lunches, and school supplies. In addition, Caravan to Class will provide school uniforms to all children and also implement our award-winning Female Adult Literacy program. The school will follow Malian standard instruction in French. The Timbuktu Ministry of Education will send a director, at their expense, to run the school and certify teachers for class instruction.

Make a donation now to Caravan to Class to help fund the Nanga school construction project.

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Caravan to Class’ work in Female Adult Literacy was showcased at Dining for Women National Conference at the US Institute of Peace.

Caravan to Class’ award-winning Female Adult Literacy program was funded with a 2-year grant from Dining for Women

MAY 9, 2018

Caravan to Class’ Founder, Barry Hoffner, was one of only a handful of men to attend Dining for Women’s National Conference at the US Institute of Peace in Washington D.C. May 4th and 5th, which was attended by more than 300 Dining for Women members nationally. Dining for Women partners with a select number of small organizations with a focus on women’s rights, as well as large humanitarian organizations like Unicef and the Peace Corps. The conference saw an impressive list of speakers both working in the field and in the political sphere fighting for women’s rights globally.

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