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Butterfly Friends
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Adult education for women · Brikama and New Jeshwang

The Sunflower Women

Adult women who never got to go to school learn to read, write and count — and receive microloans to start businesses of their own.

The Sunflower Women in class
The Sunflower Women in class

  • 2010

    Started in Brikama

  • 3

    Years of English and maths

  • 2014

    First cohort graduated

Schooling, later in life

The Sunflower Women project started in Brikama in 2010 as a three-year education programme for adult women who never attended school. The first fifteen women learned to write their own names, read and do arithmetic — skills they needed in daily life and at the market.

In February 2014 the first cohort received their diplomas, and the programme grew: in the 2018/2019 school year, 32 women studied in two classes, in Brikama and New Jeshwang. The teaching — English and mathematics — was led by teachers Gaye and Absa Jobe in New Jeshwang and Landing Sorra in Brikama.

Microloans and the road ahead

The project is driven by supporters Ellen Horn Langeland and Trond Rasmussen. Ellen also administers a microloan scheme, where women who complete the programme can borrow money to start small businesses.

The programme has been paused since the COVID-19 pandemic. Butterfly Friends hopes to restart it as soon as finances allow.

Photographs

From the Sunflower Women

  • Concentrated writing practice
    Concentrated writing practice
  • A lesson under the roof
    A lesson under the roof
  • The Sunflower Women together
    The Sunflower Women together

Want to take part?

For NOK 300 a month you give a child schooling, food and safety — or medicines for the health centre.

Become a sponsor

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