By Alou Doumbia, Field Director

Way back in 2017, a generous donor sponsored Inspiration Scholarships for two young women from the tiny village of Lofine, at our Eagle Environmental Academy. We wanted to check in on those young women to see how they are doing as they begin their third and last year of nursing school in the “big” town of Kadiolo, Mali. We found they are both enthusiastic, proud, and very happy to see their dream becoming true by making them health workers.

First, I spoke with Natogoma. I asked her about her experience at Mali Rising’s Eagle Environmental Academy. “When my father enrolled me in school, I did not know why he did that,” remembers Natogoma. “When I was in 6th grade, I had no idea what I wanted to be. But after the 7th grade, I began to envy our school’s teachers and nurses of our health center. I was curious to know how they could have these skills to be so important in our village.”

Natogoma expressed curiosity about how she too might develop skills that could help her village. “My father used to tell me that life is a series of steps and that we can’t know everything while we are children.” As she grew, she came to realize that education was the key to developing those skills to change her life.

I asked Natogoma how she was able to study hard enough to qualify for an Inspiration Scholarship. “I welcomed our American friends [the school sponsor of Eagle Environmental Academy, who came to visit with a Mali Rising expedition]….”, Natogoma recalls. “A few years after, when that American visited again, he raised his hand and promised two nursing scholarships for two girls. I understood that if I worked well, I would be one of those two girls. From then on, I realized that courage can give a person what they desire. I daily studied my lessons hard; it was a kind of competition between my friends and me as the DEF exam [the national graduation exam] approached.”

And her hard work paid off! Natogoma says, “My friend Aïssata and I passed the exam and we benefited from the scholarships making the dream come true.”

So, thanks to her Mali Rising education and the help of a generous donation for her Inspiration Scholarship Natogoma is within a year of being a full-fledged nurse. This achievement is huge, and will allow her to reach her dream of helping others.

Next week, we’ll share the story of Natogoma’s friend, Aïssata, who also reached for the stars and worked hard to receive her Inspiration Scholarship.

Learn more about our Inspiration Scholars and how you can get involved.