GOOD TO KNOW!
Nigeria – a land of different cultures. Cultural diversity is emphasised here: a couple of hundred ethnic groups share the most populous African country of Nigeria.
This is also evident at school. The picture shows pupils during a performance, with everyone wearing the tribal dress of their own tribe.
While the big city of Abuja is developing ever faster, everything in the countryside is still the same. Roads are in bad condition and nobody seems to care. The road we depend on every day has also suffered significantly from the rainy season. We can only hope that this road will finally be completed and that there will also be some development in the countryside.
Do it yourself! The stones used for building the school are made on the premises. The picture shows the drying shaped bricks in front of the huge cluster of burns.
How fitting! The licensing plate of the school bus starts with ABC – what a good sign: whoever steps on that bus will not stay illiterate.
The children help their families from a very young age onwards. They are able to carry out tasks in the home and on the fields. Unfortunately, some children miss entire days of school because they have to help on their parents’ farm.
Cooking on an open fire is the most common, as well as the cheapest, method. Sadly this results in negative consequences for the entire ecosystem of the region.
Hope Eden, with its big trees and a small forest, is indeed a kind of ‘Garden of Eden’. In the surrounding area these features will be looked for in vain. Most forests and even single trees have been cut down.
Public Transport’, the country’s local and long-distance passenger transport, is a huge challenge. Commercial minibuses usually take over the transport. Because of bad road conditions and desolate condition of the buses, serious accidents with personal injuries often happen. Rail transport could make a clear difference here. However, most of the country’s locomotives are over four decades old and no longer operational. A new train line is to be built to remedy this situation. The station in the picture looks promising, let’s wait and see if the new route from Abuja to Kaduna can be established.
Clean water is a luxury. Thanks to the support of the German Embassy in Abuja, there is clean water on the premises. A deep well provides Hope Eden with drinking water. This is a privilege that lots of children don’t enjoy in their own homes. Polluted water is the main reason for diseases in the country.