By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Coordinator

Lamine Mariko is an incredible science teacher at Christiana Norris Middle School. But don’t take my word for it – his teacher peers made that clear when they gave him a big round of applause at our most recent Teacher Peer Meeting!

Mali Rising Foundation is helping teachers from ten of our partner schools intensively during the school year 2022-2023. This intensive support includes teacher peer meetings, trainings, and other support. Mr. Mariko is one the teachers participating in the intensive program this year, and he recently attend a Teacher Peer Meeting. Mr. Mariko came all the way from Christiana Norris Middle School --  a 70 kilometer trip down a rutted, dusted road on his tired motorcycle.

But once Mr. Mariko arrived at our Teacher Peer Meeting, he proved he is one the most determined teachers we have ever seen! In fact, he was so prepared that all his peers applauded him. At Teacher Peer Meetings, teachers volunteer to present a lesson for critique by their peers. Mr. Mariko presented a science lesson about the human digestive system and the teeth’s role in digestion. In preparation, he had drawn on two sheets clear and beautiful representations of the digestive system and a tooth. His teacher peers were nearly speechless to see how much he had prepared! These drawings of the digestive system and teeth showed everybody how determined Mr. Mariko is when it comes to teaching his subject, biology.

Mr. Mariko is thirty years old, and has been teaching at the school for three years. He loves teaching biology. He is engaged to Aminata who he describes as a tall and striking woman. He confided that he loves her very much. Mr. Mariko’s school is about seventy kilometers away from his hometown, which is where Aminata lives. Mr. Mariko tries to see his fiancée every three months on weekends. When he goes too long without seeing see her, he gets lonely and bored.

When I got to talk with Mr. Mariko about his motivation, he mentioned that he thinks anything we do needs to be well done and teaching is one of those jobs. Mr. Mariko said, “My job is one of the jobs that are the most noble and useful to humanity and that makes me more determined to be helpful to students of Christiana Norris Middle School.”

Mr. Mariko realizes that children are the future for every nation and their education is the most important thing. Mr. Mariko told me, “The lack of education could destroy a nation, the same way a good education could build a great future for a nation.” He even shared this quotation of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”  Mr. Mariko shared that anytime he thinks of this quotation, he tells himself  that he must improve himself so that he can help others improve as well.

Thus, Mr. Mariko is very grateful to the donors of Mali Rising Foundation who are also contributing a lot to building the Mali future through helping teachers improve their skills, which he feels will surely result in better future for the whole country.