St. Mary’s School Project, Papiri, Borgu, North West Nigeria

On the 9th May 2008 St. Mary’s Primary School officially opened at Papiri. The school was paid for through our fund raising efforts here in Ireland and now, at August 2009, two hundred and fifty children are in full time education. Education had been rare in the history of the Kamberi people, and the hunger for learning had come from the people themselves. The Official Opening was attended by the Irish Ambassador to the West African Nations, His Excellency Kyle O’Sullivan.

The Ambassador spoke of the importance of the school and welcomed the cooperation that was occurring between the people of Ireland and the people of north west Nigeria.

The Need

The Kamberi people have been seriously disadvantaged throughout the generations. Their neighbours and those who passed by on the trading routes had developed the many skills associated with education. They were talented in the ways of business and trading, the Kamberi were not.

Education is changing all that. Knowledge will grow, as will confidence, and within a generation these people who are among the poorest of the poor will be in a position to compete and to prosper.

Now we commence the building of St. Mary’s Secondary School.
It is on a 14 acre site adjacent to St. Mary’s Primary School that is on a site of similar size. The two schools are enclosed by more than a kilometre of wire fencing.
They are together, side by side, in an educational compound providing primary and secondary education on the one campus.

It is important to note that the land was given by the local Muslim Chief. Relations are excellent. Muslim and Christian children are being educated together at Papiri. There is respect for diversity.
There is peace and cooperation in this place of a gentle
farming people. On the occasion of the opening of the primary school, the Area Chief spoke of his pride in what the SMA Fathers (Society of African Missions) and the OLA Sisters (Our Lady of the Apostles) had achieved.

“It is my hope,” the Chief said, “that one day we will have a University in Papiri and that this area will become a centre for education.”
That process is well and truly under way.

General Observations

The children dress for the school day in their blue uniforms. They are orderly and polite, always meeting the visitor with their word of greeting, “Sanu”, accompanied by a wide smile. There is an obvious happiness, contentment, and an enthusiasm for learning. The children engage in reading, writing, arithmetic, drama, music and the learning of the basics of their religion. The OLA Sisters are in charge and are clearly a deeply caring people. There is an obvious good relationship, friendship even, between the students and the Sisters. The class atmosphere is vibrant and colourful.
Clearly learning is in progress. It is a wonderful thing to observe children who have come in out of the interior where they lived the most poor and primitive of lives, enjoying (and that is the word), the process and opportunities of education and health care. The quality of materials used in the building is of the highest standard. Local artisans are used and thus, employment is given as the school grows. The standard of workmanship is basic but of high quality. There is a feeling of “well made” and a commitment to excellence of building and education surrounding. The school also is in the process of developing a farm for self-sufficiency.
The children, farmers by nature and nurture, will have the job of tending the crops.

We have built a clinic on the Papiri site. It is situated in the middle of the class room and accommodation blocks.
Sister Queen of the OLA is the nurse in charge while her colleague Sister Paulina is the Headmistress of St. Mary’s Primary School. The OLAs have committed to managing the Secondary School now being built.

There are no towns or cities in the area. The concept of tarred roads doesn’t exist and the landscape is rough and craggy. We are truly in the deep interior where the Kamberi people eke out a living by farming. They move about from place to place within the area, cutting down and burning trees and then growing their crops for a number of years. They move on when the fertility of the soil has been spent. They are semi-nomadic and that, of course, means that the children’s home compound can be up to a hundred miles away. Accommodation blocks in our Primary School, and those planned for our Secondary School, allow the children to live on site throughout the school year.
Holidays occur in the wet season when they return home to help with the farming.

Home for the people is the compound of mud huts scattered throughout the interior. The huts are built of mud and straw, with straw thatching on a ridge of sticks for the roof.
The huts are amazingly practical providing a strong, cool place as home for the people. Farming and the implements of farming are to be found everywhere

Equality For Boys and Girls

The children at Papiri are happy children and girls are being educated as well as boys.
When parents come along to enrol their children they must enrol their girls as well as their boys. There is also the strict requirement that no child, boy or girl, who is accepted for education, will be given in childhood for marriage in the future.
In this regard education is setting the children free.
St. Mary’s Primary School is highly regarded in the area. It is thought of as the very best and the parents want their children to attend. Local people build the schools and thus the economy benefits.

The Primary School

8 No. Student Blocks
(2 Class Room Blocks 6 Accommodation Blocks)
1 No. Multi-purpose Hall
1 No. Refectory
1 No. Library/ Multi Media Centre
1 No. Kitchen & Store Block
24 No. Toilets
24 No. Washing Places
12 No. Staff accommodation rooms
1 No. Shed for Food Grinding Machine
1 No. Generator House and Generator
8 No. Wells
29 No. Concrete Poles for Electricity Distribution

St. Mary’s Primary School, Papiri is now a reality. Education exists today where little existed before. The dream has become a reality through the hard work of the Society of African Missions (SMA), the Order of Our Lady of the Apostles (OLA) and the Kamberi people themselves. Where once the children were educated under the trees, now they have a proper well built school.

Voluntary fund raising in Ireland has been at the heart of the success. Organisations in Ireland have helped with major funding.

Our Sponsors /
Corporate Funders

• Apostolic Work Ireland
• Combined Services Third World Fund Ireland
• Electric Aid Ireland
• An Garda Siochana International Development
• Irish Aid
• Irish League of Credit Union International Development
• Lions International, Newry
• Marine Tavern Warrenpoint
• Parker Green International, Newry
• Shabra Charity Foundation, Ireland
• Warrenpoint Golf Club

Email: info@newryafrica.com
Mobile: (0044) 07545 009 091 - (Rowan Hand)