By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

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. (The 20/21 school year start is delayed until January 26 in Mali…over 3 months late!) In five of our partner villages, we work with teachers and school committee members to distribute workbooks designed to engage students with French and English for 2 weeks worth of lessons.

We’ve written elsewhere about this work and some of its promising early returns. Today I just wanted to share some heartening photos (see below) from the Workbook Project at Tim Gibson Middle School in Sebela. Every child who completes their workbook receives a bar of soap to bring home to their family and the top student receives a giant bag of rice for their family. These photos show Sebela’s top student on our most recent workbook — Konimba. You can see in these photos just how proud Konimba’s father is of her hard work — just look at those smiles!

These photos made me so happy I wanted to share them with you all — there is something wonderful about the reminder that parents around the world are just the same…we all think our children are the best and love to see that acknowledged!