By Ousmane Coulibaly, Operations Coordinator
Building and opening a new school is a joyful occasion that everyone celebrates. Less exciting but every bit as important is maintaining the school – maintenance keeps schools safe for our students as the learn and grow.
Generally speaking, once Mali Rising builds a school we turn over ownership – and responsibility for care – to the village. The School Management Committee is made up of village leaders and parents and they are charged with maintaining the school. However, occasionally problems occur that are too large and expensive for the village to tackle alone. As part of our partnership, Mali Rising then works with the village to solve the problems together.
Our recent work at Lareen Mellor Middle School is a good example of this partnership. Built in 2008, Lareen Mellor Middle School faced some serious maintenance issues. The school's ceilings were damaged, there were some cracks in the classroom walls, and the school's paint was worn away. Then, a sudden windstorm damaged the school’s roof – threatening real structural damage if not repaired.
Mali Rising worked with the village and the regional mayor to solve the problems. The mayor’s office repaired the roof and paid 20% of the other, larger repair bill. Mali Rising paid the remaining 80% of the cost and coordinated with an experience builder to make sure the job was done right. This partnership makes sure that everyone is engaged with the school and feels ownership for it in the future.
The mayor and the school principal were very happy to see the fresh face given to the school. "This school was run down. Birds were pooping between the ceilings and roof, the walls were cracked, and water was seeping into the classrooms. But now they have completely removed the ceilings and repaired all the cracks. This work was very beautiful. The image of the school has completely changed,” said one observer, Mr. Abdoulaye Diarra.
Thank you to all of Mali Rising’s donors who make this work possible and give our schools long lives of service to students.
