by Merritt Frey, Executive Director

Our volunteers have been going absolutely full speed this spring to create tools and school supplies for our students in Mali. We were all geared up to send the results to Mali via shipping container, when our shipping partnership fell through. However, good deeds do not go unrewarded and last week we were able to sneak a good amount of donated and created supplies on to a shipping container now headed to our students!

Thanks to a fellow organization, Ouelessebougou Alliance, we were able to sneak some of the supplies into a health supply shipment. We couldn’t fit everything on, but we sent 65 menstrual kits for our girls, 28 donated books from Read to Mali, and 183 sets of language flashcards to our schools. Our extreme gratitude goes out to our great volunteers, and to Ouelsesebougou Alliance! (Never fear, we are working on how to get additional supplies sent over as soon as possible.)

Want to get involved in this effort? We need your help! There are numerous ways to engage:

• Flashcard Campaign — This fun campaign asks volunteers to create French/English flashcards for our students. Particularly fun if you like to draw! Learn more.

• Notes of Encouragement Campaign — In this campaign you write short notes of encouragement to our students, and decorate those notes if you like. Learn more.

• Read to Mali Campaign — In this campaign you will read a short children’s story on video for our students. Your stories will be used to enliven and diversify English language classes for our kids. Learn more.

• Menstrual Kit Campaign — This campaign is the only one that requires some specialized skills. If you can sew — we need you! And if you can ask for donations…we need you even more! Contact Merritt to get involved.

There are quite a few other ways to help out, so if nothing here appeals to you please check out our volunteer page.