The Mali Rising Foundation has introduced a new initiative, the Hope Grant, aimed at empowering its former students to create their own businesses and avoid unemployment. This scholarship will help many individuals turn their dreams into reality through small micro-grants for alumni with a great business idea. This year, we are piloting the Hope Grants with 10 deserving alumni. One particularly joyful recipient is Tenin Doumbia, a young woman from Diorila. Tenin attended Mali Rising’s Sue Taylor Middle School in Diorila.
Girls Discover the Joy of Reading
Awa Dreamed of Sewing
As part of my job at Mali Rising, I have the pleasure of helping to identify, select, and track our Inspiration Scholars. These young people are especially outstanding Mali Rising graduates who receive scholarships to continue their education. I just love hearing their stories when I check in on their progress so I wanted to share one such story with our supporters. This is what Awa told me in her own words:
Jumpstarting Language Skills
Students in Mali face many challenges, but maybe the largest is that classes are taught in a language – French – which is not their mother tongue. If a student doesn’t quickly learn French, they fall behind in all of their classes, from history to math. That’s why Mali Rising runs the French Language Intervention Project, aka FLIP. FLIP helps 7th graders improve their French skills in speaking and writing, as well as their vocabulary and comprehension. This helps students understand their teachers in the classroom, as well as making it possible for them to read their texbooks or ask questions during class.
Mandio Gets Determined
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.
Great Girls Read Gives a Huge Lift
In Mali, all too often we find that students who diligently attend school still cannot read. Based on my own personal observations, I would estimate that around 80% of middle school students are not able to read a sentence correctly in French and 85% of elementary students are not able read aloud a simple sentence like “My school is pretty.”
Through the Girls’ Project’s Great Girls Read campaign, I am focused on changing this dynamic for our girls. I am particularly passionate about focusing on reading with our elementary school girls, because if they can learn reading young it will set them way ahead in middle school!
Mother Teaching Assistants Make a Difference
The Hope of Noumousso
Turning a Sewing Machine Into a Bright Future
This fall, Awa L. Toure received an Inspiration Scholarship from the Mali Rising Foundation. These scholarships are designed to help our most outstanding students continue their education and build independent, bright futures for themselves. Awa is already on the road to her dream future at tailor school!
New Villages for a New Year of the Girls' project
Mali Rising’s Girls’ Project strives to get more girls into school and help them succeed and thrive once they are there. In the past six years, we’ve helped girls in eight different villages get into school and stay there. This summer, we are selecting five new villages for intensive work via the Project. We are excited to announce those new villages today.
