By Ousmane Coulibaly, Operations Manager
Mrs. Kone is making a difference not just for her own daughters, but for all of her villages daughters.
In Mali as in other African countries, historically few women went to school. Instead, many women were married at an early age and men did not consider women them when making certain core decisions in the society. But today this trend is changing in many regions of Mali and elsewhere. For our work at Mali Rising, we see this change happening in our school committees — the group of local people in charge of managing each school in Mali.
I recently met a woman who exemplifies this change — Aicha Kone. Ms. Kone is a female leader who joined the school management committee of the Neways Academy in the village of Touban to champion the cause of girls. She is 45 years old and the mother of 7 children, 4 boys and 3 girls. Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Kone in their family, all her 3 girls are enrolled in Neways Academy Middle School.
Mrs. Kone shared her thoughts on education with me:
“Today, I am member of the school management committee of Neways Academy middle school. I am the secretary of organization of the committee and I am also in charge of girls' affairs at the school. My role is to mobilize other women to keep our school clean. And at the end of each week, the women of the village come and clean the schoolyard…
The education of girls is very important. Imagine, I regret today that I did not have the chance to go to school. There was no school in our village at that time and I got married early. I really like studying, that's why I sent all my daughters to school and I'm sure one day they will come and help me. All of my three daughters passed the DEF here [graduated] n Touban and they are currently at the Kadiolo Public High School. As a member of the school management committee, I morally and financially support girls and I encourage them to study more”.
We salute Mrs. Kone’s amazing efforts in the committee for the smooth running of the Neways Academy Middle School and her commitment to the success of girls' education in the village!
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