Grace Education Ministries for Niger is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to coming alongside the people of Niger in strategic ways. We aim to empower Nigeriens, and in particular young Nigerienne women, with academic and vocational training as well as spiritual discipleship.
Grâce Académie founded in October 2017 by GEM, and overseen by Aileen Chung, is a school dedicated to educating young women in Niger. In this country, less than 10% of school-aged girls have the opportunity to attend school, so the privilege of learning at Grace Academy is a great gift for these young women and for their families! We know that receiving a quality Christian education will impact their future children, their extended families, their villages and their country.
In January of 2019, staff and students joyfully moved onto the permanent campus of Grace Academy. The rest of their academic year was completed in the newly constructed classrooms and dormitories. The school has begun Phase II of their construction which will include a building housing the chapel, the cafeteria, and the dispensary. In addition, the school is trying to repair its solar panels as well as find a new powerful generator to run the much-needed air conditioning unit in their sometimes 120 degree F heat!
If the Lord leads you, please join us in this ministry. We need prayer warriors to lift up the students, teachers, and the school. Checks may be made payable to GEM for Niger.
Emmanuel Académie
The dream to have a brother school to Grace Academie has been cherished by families and staff alike ever since the start of the first Christian girls secondary school in Niger. Parents and sisters desired a place to send brothers and cousins and friends for holistic education as well as to provide security and refuge from terrorist recruitment and activity. Seven years after the founding of Grace Academie, construction began for Emmanuel Academie in February 2024. The school will be located on a parcel of land within walking distance of Grace and will share the land with Maranatha Institut de Sante, a health vocational school for high school graduates.
As Aileen Chung and Zabeyrou Moustapha, founders and administrators of Grace Academie, walked the property after its purchase in January 2024, Moustapha declared, “un debut d’un autre miracle” (the beginning of another miracle). Aileen confidently stated that they would begin with a class of twenty 7th grade boys in the fall of 2024.
And so, another adventure begins…
Maranatha Institut de Santé
For quite some time, the vision of a vocational school for Grace Academie graduates to further their education has been simply a founder’s dream. But with the support of so many, Maranatha Institut will open its doors to its first cohort in October 2024. Because many of the students at Grace Academie have had the painful experience of losing close friends to complicated childbirths, many of the girls desire to become midwives. As a result, Maranatha Institut will have a special orientation around childbirth. In addition, Maranatha will train lab technicians, x-ray technicians, ultrasound technicians as well as nurse’s aides and pharmacy aides – all of which the country desperately needs.As well as equipping young men and women who have graduated from high school to work as trained medical technicians, the hope is that the vocational school will also function as a clinic and provide more extended professional medical help to the surrounding villages.
GEM for Niger is appreciative of the grant provided by Africa Future Foundation to purchase the property and make this post-secondary school possible.
Emmanuel Académie Construction, July 2024
