Did you know you could be part of building a school in Mali that will change thousands of lives. Well you can! By making a gift to Mali Rising’s Builders’ Society, you can be part of something truly big — school-sized big!
A Long, Long Walk to School
Today, October 5, is National Walk to School Day here in the United States, which is great. But for kids in Mali, every day is walk to school day. While here in the US walking to school is rightly encouraged as a good thing, in Mali it can be a huge problem. In fact, the distance kids face on that walk is often the most powerful factor driving them to drop out of school.
Quick Update On Our Newest School
You're Invited! Free, Online Tour of Mali School + Celebration
Usually each fall we gather with you -- our great supporters -- to celebrate the successes you made possible and kick off a new school year. This year we can't gather physically, but we still want to celebrate with you! Join us Sunday, November 14 for an online, free gathering celebrating the end of our Gift of Education Giving Challenge.
When Doing it Yourself Feels Good
When Mali Rising builds a new school, student desks are part of the equipment provided to the school. This is an obvious need – it is hard to make the most of a classroom if you do not have anywhere to sit! However, solving one problem can sometimes create other challenges. We have a new campaign underway to keep school desks in good shape, and I’d like to tell you about that campaign today.
Working Together for a New School in Banko
By Merritt Frey, Executive Director, with Alou Doumbia, Construction Manager
We are overjoyed that the new middle school for the children of Banko — Christiana Norris Middle School — is now open in Mali and serving kids. Alas, for now we cannot do the typical ceremonial opening with the Norris Family, who generously sponsored the school. Instead, our staff brought a video from the Norris Family to share with the students and interviewed students, staff, and parents about the new school. Over this week, I’ll be sharing stories and interviews from that trip. Today we hear from the president of Banko’s primary school committee [we will hear from the middle school president later], a group of parents and elders who manage the school.
My name is Oumar Doumbia, president of the primary school’s school committees in the village of Banko school. We now have two school management committees thanks to the opening of Christiana Norris Middle School here.
As part of my presidential duties, the village chief and I have been to neighboring villages asking them to send their students to the new middle school. Sending students from other villages to our new middle school will make it easier for children to be educated, because so many of our neighboring villages suffer the same problem we used to suffer – schools too far from home for our students to attend. There were many students out of school or unable to continue their studies due to lack of food and the regular breakdown of their bikes on the trip to school. Because of the distance the children traveled, students from some families actually left our village, and many did not return.
The CAP of Bougouni [the local unit of the Ministry of Education] and the town hall supported us. City hall officials came to meet us to identify our concerns and the challenges we faced in opening a school. Once we had a school, the officials helped advocate for teachers to be assigned to our school. The CAP approved this request and sent us two teachers. This meant the village and the school committee also had to recruit two other teachers, which has been successfully completed.
I especially salute you and the Americans who helped us achieve our goal of building a middle school in Banko. I want this partnership to continue so that this school project progresses. As many children as possible in Banko must be able to access higher education. The parents of the students and we are all at the same level of joy in this project because the additional expenses for the children to reach school, the cost of food, the repair of the bikes, the energy and the journey time are all reduced. I salute the Norris family’s effort to make the school possible.
I ask students to take their studies seriously. I call on parents of students to make sure students attend school regularly. Parents must do everything they can to ensure that children can do well in school because happiness comes. We are very happy that our school is functional because we did not know that it could be done – but now we know everything is possible when we work together!
School for the Kids of N'Goko Nears Completion
There's Nothing Like Watching A New School Rise
There are a lot of satisfying parts of this job, but few as pleasing as seeing a whole new school rise from the red soil of a small Mali village. Each year, Mali Rising builds just one or two schools (because we want to be sure we are also providing the support ALL of our schools need to deliver a quality education) and each one is as much of a joy to us as it is to the local village.
