By Hindaty Traore, Girls’ Project Manager

As part of the Girls’ Project work, each spring we organize a session on eating and cooking healthy, local foods. This session includes preparation of a group meal with the girls. But the session is not only about food – cooking and eating together gives us a great, informal way to talk and share.

While we wait for the meal to cook, we share stories around the table. Each girl tells a story that marked her, and shares her dreams and her goals. This is a very important activity that allows girls to confide and share their experiences.

This year, we prepared the tasty pasta commonly called in Mali macroni. Before we started the preparation, everyone washed their hands well. Then, while some told their stories, some put a fire under the pot, some chopped vegetables, and others tasted if there was enough salt.

During the sharing, Niagalen Doumbia, an 8th grader at Ross and Marilou Moser Middle School, offered to tell us about her story. Before she got into her story, she explainted that education has changed her life because she is more aware and educated than the others who have not had this chance. Her education has made her discover certain things that she did not know such as the name and location of countries on the world map.

Niagalen described the obstacles she had to overcome to attend school. For example, because she had no electricity at home and she had to study at the house of a friend with light. When she returned home late one night,  the gate to her family’s yard was closed and locked! She had to jump over the wall to enter and make her way into her safe bed.  

Another obstacle was when she had to go to school without a notebook because she lives with my grandmother and her grandmother had no money to buy school supplies. (In general in the villages, the old people do not work, so they have no source of income.) Despite the lack of a notebook, she continued to go to class because she told herself that even if she has no way to record the lesson she will follow and understand by memorizing what is taught. When she finally received a notebook, she was able to write out the lessons from her memory!

According to Niagalen, her teachers didn't say anything about her lack of a notebook because they knew she couldn't afford it, so they helped her overcome these difficulties by letting her take lessons without a notebook.

After telling her story of challenges, Niagalen -- who is a very funny girl -- also told us a funny story with her grandmother. Niagualen sleeps on the same mat as her grandmother. Before sleeping, Niagalen always asked her grandmother to tell her stories like all grandparents used to do with their grandchildren in Mali.

Her grandmother always told Niagalen wonderful tales, but this day her grandmother was angry because Niagalen was late from coming back from studying. This did not please her grandmother because it meant Niagualen could not help with chores. So, grandmother refused to tell her tales. In fact, her grandmother had taken up all the space on the mat because she was so angry!  

So Niagualen lay down next to her grandmother and pushed her! Then her grandmother pushed Niagalen back stubbornly. They both pushed back and forth until they fell into giggling and made up!  Niagalen told her grandmother that if she makes an effort to succeed in school, it is because she will bring both of them out of this misery. Since that day, her grandmother says she will let her study.

“I thank my parents for enrolling me in school, my teachers for teaching me, and the donors for building us a school. I was able to overcome all the difficulties that prevented me from continuing in school and despite that I did not give up. I want to be a doctor,“ said Niagalen.

Doing this cooking and nutrition activity gives girls the opportunity to express themselves, as well as to understand each other's history in order to benefit from it. Everyone learned about each other and it was really fun. This allowed me personally to know some difficulties that some girls have faced and makes me feel even more proud of how hard they work to stay in school.