By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

Sometimes keeping up with your email is a burden. Sometimes is an absolute joy.

When is it a joy? Well, when a generous Mali Rising supporter reaches out on a quiet Tuesday morning to let you know they have raised enough funds to build a school in Mali.

Ilias did just that. Ilias has been a steady Mali Rising supporter for the last few years. He was part of building Tim Gibson Middle School in Sebela in 2017, and this spring he beat me by logging more miles in the Miles for Mali virtual walk-a-thon. 

But this summer Ilias went above and beyond. Ilias was planning to move with his family to a new country. At a going away party with his friends and business colleagues, he was asked what he would like as a going-away present.

Ilias didn’t hesitate, “To build a school in Mali."

By the next morning, the group of friends had committed the $55,000 needed to build a school. Just like that. Now that’s a generous, motivated group of friends!

We’ve selected the village of Kafara as the home for Ilias’s new school. The little village is located about 72 kilometers southeast of the capitol city of Bamako and is home to about 1,450 people. Although the village enrolls more than 250 students in their primary school, they have no middle school to help the children continue their education.

Thanks to Ilias and his friends, things will change this fall for the children of Kafara. Education can change everything for a child in Mali and thanks to Ilias and his friends more than a hundred children each year in Kafara will have the chance to build a better life for themselves!

More information on Kafara, its students, and more coming soon.

Note: first name only used at the request of our donor.