By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Coordinator

Since late March, I — like all of our Mali-based staff and many of you readers — have been working from home. This is a very new idea for all of us! How is our work at home going during the coronavirus pandemic?

The hardest part about working from home is the lack of connection with the rest of the staff. Luckily, the staff of Mali Rising meet by Zoom calls three times a week to develop strategies that will allow us to help our schools during this difficult time, especially the girl students.

During these meetings, we often have very funny unforeseen events. One day while the staff was on the video conference, Adama's son came into the room without being at all shy — all the participants were surprised. He absolutely wanted to know what we are doing! Often Alou's children make noises or Merritt's dogs bark during the meeting. Alou and Adama have 10 children between them, so there are many chances for interruption. For myself, I have to change rooms very often in the middle of a meeting to avoid noises from my big family because I still live at home.

In Mali the electricity is very unstable so often in the middle of a meeting a participant is blocked while speaking. This leaves them with their mouth left hanging open in image on the screen because of the power cut in their home.

Despite all of this we manage to hold our meetings with enthusiasm. Laptops and phones have become our essential partners. Although it can be challenging, we are so glad to be able to safely continue our work to help the children, even during these hard times.