Bess Palmisciano traveling with Taureg friends.


“It’s like going back in time 2000 years,” said Bess Palmisciano, a Bar member from Newmarket who founded and directs Rain for the Sahel and Sahara (RAIN), a non-profit organization that is helping to bring famine relief to Niger in West Africa. 

Many of the people in Niger are nomads, taking their flocks and herds from place to place to find food and water.  “They subsist by using the meat and milk from their animals—and by growing millet, a crop which, because of drought and locusts, failed last year, leading to this year’s famine,” said Palmisciano, who is in the midst of coordinating shipments of tons of food to the former French colony, the second-poorest country in the world.

At present, thousands of people in Niger are near starvation—about a third are children.  Some assistance has come from various world organizations, but this help has gone mostly to the southern regions of Niger.  The people living in the more remote areas to the north have been largely overlooked, but RAIN has distributed about 12 tons of food to these people during the past several weeks—and about 10 tons more will be underway soon.

Palmisciano and her husband John Ahlgren are both New Hampshire attorneys, although Bess has taken inactive status so that she may devote all her time to RAIN, which she formed some years ago. They live in Newmarket and John practices in Portsmouth—and supports RAIN with both his interest and his earnings.  He is currently the interim chair of the organization’s board of directors.

A Fateful Visit

“It all began with a visit to Niger in 2000,” said Palmisciano.  “John and I had traveled quite a bit in Southeast Asia—Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand.  We wanted to become involved in some way in the life of some other country.  We’d been to India and to South America, too.

“Then some friends, the Lampsons from Newington, who lived in Niger (John Lampson worked for the State Department), asked us to visit them…. I had always wanted to see the Sahara—and Niger is mostly desert.  The Lampsons said Niger was very beautiful.” 

Palmisciano’s voice softened:  “Only 15 percent of the Sahara is actually composed of sand dunes and Niger is one place where you can find miles and miles of these dunes—the loveliest undulating mountains of sand.  And the light, the clarity of the air, the sky, the stillness…it’s indescribable.”

The southern border of the Sahara is called the Sahel, which is Arabic for “shore” and it is an semi-arid ribbon of land between the desert and the great savannahs to the south.  Whatever is not desert in Niger is Sahel, thus the name Rain for the Sahel and Sahara.

While in Niger the first time, Bess and John met Moussa Haidara, a Taureg (nomadic people of the Sahara) guide, who became a good friend, and later RAIN’s logistics manager in Niger.  Moussa has only an eighth-grade education, but speaks fluent French, the official language, although most residents speak only native languages.  Bess and John were impressed with Moussa’s knowledge and his kindness—and by his special gentleness and concern for any of the Taureg children they happened to meet in their travels. 

RAIN’s First Project

Moussa took Bess, John and their friends to his old school, which had fallen into disrepair and was no longer in use.  The dormitory—really just a large empty room—needed beds, and the school’s garden needed to be brought back.  Moussa asked Bess for help in restoring the school and its garden.  Because their families are nomadic, children who attend school must board there during the school year—and the garden is their major source of fresh food. 

So Palmisciano’s first fund-raising effort back in the States was to collect money to restore the garden at Moussa’s old school—and build a well to water it.  The parents actually planted the garden and dug the well and RAIN donated a gasoline pump.  The dormitory was also repaired and provided with mattresses and a small house built for the teacher to live in—and simple medical supplies provided.  Later, RAIN helped to restore other gardens and other schools.  Recently, efforts have included drip-irrigation at some schools, a major money-saver because the fuel used to run the well pumps is so expensive.

Bess continued to work to raise funds for various projects in Niger, traveling back and forth, seeking out charitable organizations, and applying for grants.  Eventually, someone at one of the foundations asked her why she didn’t just start her own non-profit.  With John’s help, she established RAIN.

Other Projects:
AIDS Education and Helping to Start Local Businesses

AIDS education is another major project funded by RAIN.  “We tried videos, but they just didn’t hold the interest of the people,” said Palmisciano. “So we composed short plays which are put on by villagers, depicting, for instance, a conversation between husband and wife about AIDS.  We also distribute condoms.”

Bess found that several villagers were eager to develop small businesses and since she had worked at FleetBoston Financial in Boston as a transaction attorney for several years before going inactive, she was able to help them.  Her legal/banking background proved invaluable.  Parent groups wanting education for their children make up these businesses and 40-50 percent of all their profits are set aside for the schools.  Two women’s cooperatives now exist that do grain grinding; another women’s co-op makes leather goods—and another has an animal feed store.  One group of parents has formed a co-op to run a general store.

A Taste of Life in Niger

On one occasion during Bess and John’s first visit, Moussa asked them what they would really like to do.  They said they’d like to set up camp near a nomadic settlement to try to get to know some of the people firsthand   Moussa found a place for them near such a settlement and while they were camped there, the people started coming out to see them at night, bringing food and staying to visit.  They often sang Taureg songs and sometimes danced. 

Bess and John hope to bring a little of this experience to the people of New Hampshire on Oct. 28 when there will be a fund-raiser for RAIN at Tom Haas’ barn in Durham.  Tom is RAIN’s biggest individual supporter.  Two Taureg musicians will perform, playing Taureg instruments and singing in the native language.

Anyone interested in contributing to the famine relief fund or to RAIN’s other projects in Niger, may write to Bess at, or send a contribution to: RAIN, PO Box 545, Newmarket, NH 03857.  More information about RAIN’s efforts or about the October fund-raiser can also be found by visiting the Web site: www.Rain4Sahara.org. 

The next time you see a story about Niger on the evening news, wouldn’t it be great to know that you have done something to help?  And that you did it by contributing to an organization run by fellow attorneys right here in New Hampshire? 

GIVING BACK is an ongoing effort by the NHBA to identify and recognize the community service efforts of NH Bar members. If you have a story or information, please contact Bar News associate editor Beverly Rorick at brorick@nhbar.org.