| Extract from ‘Girls education: a priority!’ - part of the ‘I am a child but I have my rights too!’ series from West Africa. |
|
| Ami |
My papa and mama never went to school. They say it’s not important. They’re right. |
| Yacine and Aicha: |
What! Not important? Your head must have fallen to the bottom of the well for you to be able to say such a stupid thing. |
| Buki (the hyena): |
Hello girls. What are you talking about? |
| Yacine and Aicha: |
School. It’s important! |
| Ami: |
School. It’s not important! |
| Yacine: |
Let’s go and ask the village chief’s advice. |
| The village chief invites them to sit down. He holds a sheet of paper towards Ami. |
| Ami: |
Chief, I don’t know how to read. |
| Chief Mor: |
That’s too bad. This sheet of paper holds precious and marvellous secrets. And you can’t discover them. |
|
Yacine, if your father had five sacks of rice and your mother takes them to market and sells them for 10,000 francs each, how much will she earn? |
| Yacine: |
I don’t know, Chief. I don’t know how to count. |
| Chief Mor: |
That’s too bad. It’s a lot of money. If you don’t know how to count your profit, how will you know how much you can spend? |
|
And you, Aicha, read to me what is written on this bottle of medicine. |
| Aicha: |
I can’t, Chief. |
| Chief Mor: |
Too bad. If you can’t read the labels, you could poison yourself with your medicine. |
| With Ami now convinced that school is important, Chief Mor persuades her parents that it is important for girls to get an education. Several months pass. |
| Ami: |
Chief Mor! Do you remember the paper that I couldn’t read last year? I’d like to try and read it again and discover all of its treasures. |
| Chief Mor: |
Bravo Ami. Sit down under the mango tree. I’m proud that you go to school. It’s your right, it’s your choice! |
