By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Coordinator

Although girls in Mali want to stay in school, it is really challenging for them to stay there. There are many obstacles to girl’s education, such as early marriage, forced marriage, long distances to walk to school, rapes, and sexual abuse. This is especially true in rural areas. As a result, many girls drop out of school in Mali each year.

This isn’t a failure of the girls, but instead a failure of the whole community — everyone should be involved in helping girls be educated. Our Girls Project works to make sure parents are invested in their daughters’ education, but we also work with the boys in our schools to make sure they are allies to their girl peers.

For example, last week we meet with the boys of Tim Gibson Middle School of Sebela. I lead this meeting with focused just on the boys and provided education and discussions to inspire them to be more helpful to girls in terms of education and to help Mali Rising convince more parents of the value of girls’ education.

During our first boys’ meeting in Sebela, the boys proved their willingness to support girls’ education. Oumar Samaké is one of the boys who was very vocal at the meeting. Oumar is fourteen years old and he likes school very much. He is in 8th grade and thinks that education is a human right. Oumar is the middle of two sisters and three brothers. He wants all his siblings to be educated and make their family wealthy by having good jobs. Oumar likes his all teachers and dreams of being a doctor.

During our meeting, Oumar was able to explain to his peers the truth about some obstacles to girls‘ education. He also proposed some solutions in collaboration with a few classmates. Thanks to his participation and good answers, Oumar got some cookies and chocolates that he liked very much and decided to share with his younger sisters. At the end of our meeting, the Oumar and many other boys said they were ready to stand for girl’s education because it matters and can change girl’s lives for better.

Oumar does not want to be married to uneducated girl because she will not be able to read or write text messages. Oumar also said that a girl who is not educated would not be to help her husband, which is very serious according to him. He encourages other boys to spread our lessons messages and be willing to support girls’ education through trying to convince parents limit obstacles to girls’ education.

But Oumar is not all seriousness. He likes to play soccer with his friends in the afternoons. He plays the defense and wants to be a famous player in the future. A doctor/famous football player…and advocate for girls’ education — that sounds like a great future for Oumar!