By Hindaty Traore, Girls’ Project Manager
A group of girl graduates from our Denik Middle School recently returned to their home village to inspire girls currently attending the school to study hard, all under the guise of a friendly soccer match. Meet two of the inspiring graduates who attended and inspired our Girls’ Project participants to study hard and dream big.
Massoun – girl organizer; aspiring fire-fighter
Massoun is currently in the 11th grade at a public high school in the big town of Ouelessebougou. Massoun graduated from Denik Middle School two years ago, but last month she returned to the school with a goal of inspiring today’s students to dream big for their future.
In March, she reached out to 10 other Denik Middle School graduates who are also currently studying in Ouelessebougou at high school, health schools or vocational programs. She asked them to join her in a return to their former school to challenge the current girl students to a friendly soccer match. At the same time, the older girls could talk with the younger girls about their future and how important school is for that future.
Massoun was the driving force behind the gathering of alumnae and current students.
Massoun said her goals for the visit were to 1) to put into practice everything she learned during her time in Mali Rising’s Girl Project about leadership and planning and 2) to take advantage of the fun football match to educate and inspire the girls to stay in school, talking to the girls about the experiences she and other graduates are acquiring from their education.
Massoun shared with the current students that her dream is to become a firefighter or a secretary. Recently, she took the very competitive firefighter entrance exam but unfortunately, she failed the written test of the competition. Massoun said, “I failed because I have a very low level in French despite my intelligence.”
But Massoun does not intend to give up, instead she is committed to studying even harder in high school this year to prepare to enter the competition again next year. She gave this example to show the current girls of Denik Middle School that one must do everything to learn to read and understand, because this will help them a lot in the future. Massoun said, “Especially with the new reading program that the Girl Project has initiated, girls can improve their French a lot, which is important because we are in a French-speaking country where everything is done in French.”
Farima – self-confident; poet; future secretary
Farima is determined to turn her self-confidence into a future as a firefighter.
Farima Bagayoko was another alumna who attended the friendly soccer match. She is currently in her second year at the professional school of Ouelessebougou secretarial section. Farmima told the girls how the different activities of the Girls’ Project helped her a lot, especially the themes of self-confidence and leadership, and the exposure to different possible work professions.
According to Farima if she did not benefit from Girls’ Project meetings she would feel inferior to the girls in her high school or be too shy to ask questions and this could have negative impacts on her studies. Because most of the students in her high school are girls from the city while she comes from a village, she really needed that extra confidence.
"Discussing topics such as leadership skills and self-confidence is still helping me in my studies today,” said Farima. “For example, there was an event in my school where a girl would read a poem in front of everyone. When I showed up to do it people were really impressed by my confidence. My teachers were all proud of me. That day, I thanked Girls’ Project. The advice I give to girls is to follow the activities of Girls’ Project well, it allows you to learn a lot of things.”
Thanks to the testimonies of the graduated girls, all the current girls were motivated to learn more about reading and to successfully pass their graduation exam so that they too can head off to higher education in Ouelessebougou or beyond.
After the discussion between the graduated girls and the current girl students, the two sides met on the soccer field of Zambougou. Happily, the match ended with one goal by each side. The two teams will meet again at the school-year end celebration of the Girls’ Project in July!
