Mr. Konaté is one of our principals who impresses us with their great school results and strong relationships with their partners like school committee, local educational department, and non-governmental organizations. At a recent Principal Peer Meeting, we had a chance to talk with him about his school and how he runs it so well.
Our Powerful Girls Apply Their Power to Reading!
Reading is the heart of knowledge, yet many children in Mali cannot read. In fact, many students fail school all together because, when you do not know how to read the lesson, you cannot learn the lesson nor understand its meaning. This is a problem we must address! As Mali’s new school year begins this month, I am helping our Girls’ Project girls improve their reading ability through our study sessions.
Reminder: Speech Up! Video Contest Deadline Extended
Konimba: Working Hard Even During A Pandemic
During this uncertain pandemic time, Mali Rising is working in five of our partner villages to test take home workbook as a tool for keeping students learning when schools are closed due to the pandemic. One of the villages where we have done this work is Sebela. We recently visited with the high scoring workbook student of Sebela, Konimba, and her father.
Recommitting to Service on this MLK Day? Learn About Volunteering at Mali Rising
Today is MLK Day in the United States — one of our most inspirational holidays. This is a day to step up in service to others in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr.. I’d like to encourage you to consider carrying this spirit forward beyond today by volunteering for Mali Rising — and we have a great way for you to learn how.
Volunteers Needed: You Can't Improve What You Don't Measure!
By Merritt Frey, Executive Director
How do you measure a great education? You tell us! In 2021, Mali Rising is overhauling our approach to measuring the quality of education in our remote, rural Mali schools. We are searching for 2 to 3 people with skills in education, monitoring, and evaluation to help us really understand how to change lives through education.
Advisors will engage with our board committee (Internal Affairs Committee) on this issue and devote 4 to 6 hours a month to research and discussion. We ask Advisors to commit to 10 months of engagement (March-December) if possible. In exchange, Advisors will get to know a wonderful group of volunteers, explore how education works in a different culture, and have access to special content from Mali and our schools.
Interested in learning more and perhaps getting involved? Contact Merritt.
Keeping Students Connected to Learning
Just like everyone else around the world, Mali Rising staff and students have had to make a lot of “pivots” over the last year. Although that term may be over-used these days, it remains a central part of our new reality. Flexibility has become our new core skill, as closed schools and other problems challenge attempts to keep children learning. As part of our pivoting, we have developed and distributed take-home workbooks that allow our students to stay connected with learning and language during their extended break.
Helping Girls Leap From Primary to Middle School
One of the Girls’ Project goals is to have more girls graduate from middle school. To achieve that goal, we must first make sure that girls make the leap from 6th grade (primary school) to 7th grade (middle school). As part of our strategies to help girls make that leap, we have been talking to the families of the girls who were in the 6th grade and are now supposed to be enrolled in 7th grade in January 2021. These meetings are focused on trying to convince parents to keep girls in school, but also to see if there are any obstacles that would prevent girls from moving on to 7th grade. In December 2020, we talked with 18 families.
Each family had a different reason why they were considering removing their girls from school. One common issue is that families think that when a girl turns 15 she must be married. This belief makes it much more difficult to convince families to let their daughters continue in school, and perhaps into vocational training to get a job.
One Girl Leader Steps Into Her Power
As part of our Girls Project, after three years of work in a village, we train local Girl Leaders to take over leadership of the Project. This allows us to offer leadership training and real-world experience to some amazing young women and to make the Project more sustainable by making the leadership more local. Girl Leaders serve for one year, and we offer them three multi-day trainings throughout their year of service. In this blog post, Hindaty tells the story of one Girl Leader as she attended her second training with us.
Deadline Extended for Speech Up! Video Contest
Big news! Due to helpful input from our Youth Ambassadors, we are extending the submission deadline for our Speech Up! Video Contest to March 31, 2021 at midnight eastern. Our Ambassadors explained that this crazy year means many students are scrambling right now with college applications, and we do not want to add any stress to this year!
