By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Manager

Each year, we honor three Mali Rising Teachers with special awards to recognize their outstanding service. As the school year in Mali nears its end, I am proud to announce one of those winners. This year’s Most Helpful Teacher Award goes to Mr. Yagala Diara from Little Heroes Academy II.

When I delivered his award and prizes last week, he shared his thoughts in his own words. I’d like to share those directly now with you:

“My name is Yagala Diarra and I am an English teacher at Little Heroes Academy II. I am proud & excited to share what I have on my mind right now because it is incredibly exciting to me. I am one of the winners of Mali Rising Foundation Teacher Awards this school year. Hearing this news from Mali Rising Foundation is such a great excitement and pride to me!

I have been teaching English at Little Heroes Academy II for about six years. Working at Little Heroes Academy II is enjoyable because my students always encourage me work hard by showing me respect, engagement, and interest during my classes. I have a goal every year, which is helping my students become successful in school by creating time and strategies to help them out.

This award means a lot to me because it makes me feel fresh in my work and make me realize how much other people pay attention to what I am doing with students. This award is the “MOST HELPFUL TEACHER AWARD,” which tells me not to give up good work and even make more effort to help my students. I personally think I won this award thanks to my courage of organizing extra classes on weekends with students and I am always available for my students when it comes to helping them out.

I remember back in the days I had to work even on Sundays in order to help some of the students at our school, as the national exam was getting closer. My goal is to help all the students at Little Heroes Academy II have good skills, especially those who are candidates for the national exam. In our area when a student fails their exam, it is a shame on them, other people will look down on them, and their parents are so ashamed! That is why it is so important that I am very dedicated to help the candidates for the exam.

Today I won a huge dictionary, a beautiful wooden statue, and nice T-shirt with a very touching sentence on it: ” The Most Helpful Teacher Award 21-22”. I am proud of myself and hope this will make me more engaged to help kids, as they are the future of my nation.

I will wear my T-shirt to show that I am so proud of my work! I will keep the wooden statue at my house and show it to my kids and my grandchildren to make them understand that good work will always pay well eventually.  The dictionary can be used by anyone who needs it especially at our school because we all need to help each other when it comes to learning things.  So, I am extremely excited and I hope some other teachers will work as much as I do next time to get more Mali Rising Foundation Teacher Awards. Thank you, Mali Rising Foundation for the Award!”

And we thank Mr. Diarra for all his does for our kids…and we thank our donors who make the Teacher Awards possible.