mali: Liberation arrives on the back of a donkey

Tony Blair would recognise the message at once: education, education, education. He might be a little less familiar with Taklitin walet Farati's means of delivery, which is from the back of a dusty donkey as she plods from village to village in northern Mali. All educators face obstacles, but this 40-year-old widow faces more than most in one of the remotest regions of one of Africa's poorest countries, where 70 per cent of the population is illiterate. Her specific mission is the schooling of young girls, and both the poverty and the traditions of the people are against her.