By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

Looking for a fun volunteering project this summer? Consider volunteering for the Notes of Encouragement Campaign!

This project is just what it sounds like: we ask you to write notes of encouragement to our students in Mali! We provide instructions and you write short notes (and add photos, stickers, etc. if you like), scan the notes and send them to us. Learn more and sign up here.

We are starting to build up our Notes for the coming 23/24 school year. Our goal is to get EVERY student a Note, which means we need nearly 4,000 notes. You can help us chip away at that big goal.

Notes are just short messages to encourage our students as they work hard in school. Your notes will:

1) let our students know someone is rooting for them, which is wonderful because our kids face a lot of barriers to education that make life tough,

2) will be exciting to receive for a young person in a small, remote village, and

3) provide a fun way to practice their English skills - one of 8 subjects Mali middle schoolers have to master.

This is a great chance to volunteer remotely — no need to leave home! This is a fun project to do alone or with your family. We find kids especially enjoy making and decorating notes for other kids. Learn more and sign up here.