To Niger, with pencils

When Karla Barbieri, a Needham, Massa­chusetts, woman who served in the Peace Corps in Niger in the early 1990s, learned last year that political science professor Bill Miles would be traveling there in December, she got an idea.

Barbieri helped organize a project called the Niger Pencil Box at her son’s school, Eliot Elementary. Students there began collecting school supplies: enough pens, pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, rulers, erasers, pencil pouches, and glue sticks to fill two large suitcases.

So when Miles and the students in his special-topics class on Niger went to that country, where they were able to meet with other university students, the U.S. ambassador to Niger, and various Peace Corps volunteers and officials, they were also able to present the people of Yekuwa, Niger, with a bull and a cart, a hand-propelled tricycle for a handicapped resident, and the wealth of school supplies.

Senior Estella Moriarty calls that moment "the best part of out trip."

Miles agrees. "It had a powerful impact," he says.

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