By Hindaty Traore, Girls’ Project Manager
Sue Taylor Middle School in Diorila is one of our schools where the girls had a lot of difficulty overcoming obstacles to their education. But there are girls who still stand up and overcome those obstacles. Seventeen-year-old Mandio D. is one of the girls from Girls’ Project who decided to be agents of change in their community.
Short in stature, Mandio is very jovial and a real dancer. She is ready to do anything to help her friends or neighbors. She just passed her graduation exam this year, but she had to overcome a lot of obstacles to graduate.
Mandio's parents made her believe that she was not allowed to go to school because she is a girl. She said her parents kept quoting her the names of girls her age who had married and had children, so that she could take the example of these girls.
Since primary school, her parents told Mandio she was in school just for a little while because she her real role was to stay with her mother to learn how to cook before being married. These were the skills they felt she need in order to be a good wife as the societal culture of Mali indicates. Because Mandio felt certain she would be forced to drop out of school one day, she did not care to study hard -- she knew she would have to leave school sooner or later and go to her husband.
Arriving at the 7th grade, Mandio understood absolutely nothing about the lessons given in class. As a result, she had to repeat the 7th grade. But that turned out to be a good thing! Why? Because this was the time the Girls’ Project came to her school!
Mandio told me it was at this moment that she said to herself that it was time for her to study well so as not to depend on people and also show her parents that a girl could succeed through education. According to her, at the same time her parents wanted her to stop school to go to Bamako to work as a housekeeper so that she could buy her wedding trousseau. She went to ask her aunt for help so that she could stay in school, but the aunt said Mandio’s father was right: that a girl has nothing to do in school.
Mandio didn't know where to turn. Tired of begging and fighting to stay in school, she finally accepted her fate of going to Bamako to work. But then she had an idea!
"One day during one of our meetings with the Girls’ Porject, I remembered that if we are registered in the Girls’ Project we should not leave school until we obtain our basic study diploma (DEF). So I explained to my parents that they enrolled me in the Girls’ Project so they are obliged to let me study,” explains Mandio.
“My parents agreed to this because they thought if they took me out of school they might have problems. I was protected by the Project,” continued Mandio.
But it wasn’t all perfect. “As they had no choice [to remove me from school], they decided to make my school life even more complicated. They decided that I have to go to Bamako during the three-month vacation to work before school starts. I did all the domestic work in the house, even going to cut wood in the bush, which was reserved for the boys. They wanted me to be discouraged to leave school on my own. But I used the determination and skills that I had during our meetings with the Girls’ Project with themes such as self-confidence, the functions that I could exercise after my studies, and how to set goals,” declared Mandio. “I set myself a goal which is to have the DEF [graduation exam] in the first place and to become a tailor one day to show my parents that being a girl does not only mean a housewife but a woman independent who also contributes to the development of her community and her entire country.”
And her determination paid off!
“I just got my DEF. I would like to study sewing then open a sewing workshop in my village. Unfortunately I cannot afford this training at the moment. Today, after having my DEF I think I achieved half of my goal. I myself would like to sew my white bazin dress for my wedding because I am ready to get married after my sewing studies,” she said.
I think Mandio is a girl who needs help because of all the obstacles she had to overcome to get her DEF graduation results. She is persevering, courageous, determined, and ambitious above all. She loves to succeed in order to be independent and help her family who is very poor. If Mandio manages to do the sewing training and opens a workshop, it will help other parents and girls to become more involved in girls' education.
