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 the next week, I’ll be sharing stories and interviews from that trip. The first interview story today is from a young man, Bakary, who was able to return home to his family now that the village has a school for him!
Reminder: Speech Up! Video Contest Deadline Extended
What Are You Doing Over Winter Break?
Helping Girls Find the Space & Quiet to Learn
The Girls Project focuses on enrolling more girls in school, but it also aims to help those girls succeed once they are in the classroom. To help our girls, we organize regular study meetings. This allows girls to learn techniques to better understand their lessons, with a particular focus on what the girls identify as the difficult parts of the subjects. The Study Groups are new for the Girls Project this year. It is in the spirit of creativity that we introduced them into our activities, after finding that the girls have deficiencies in learning their lessons when trying to study after class.
Calling All Teachers: Engage Your Students in Speech Up!
We know it is a hard and strange year for teachers everywhere. Here in the U.S., I know so many teachers who are working double-time — developing online engagement strategies, duplicating lessons for both in-classroom and online, and/or facing worries about COVID-19 infection in their classrooms. We see you teachers! All of this may make this a good year for teachers to consider incorporating our Speech Up! video contest into your curriculum.
Karim & Modibo Enjoy Working Together to Learn
Mariam Dreams of Being an Eye Doctor
By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Coordinator
Hindaty had a chance to talk with one of our Girls Project participants and recorded her thoughts in her own words. Mariam attends Mali Rising’s Tim Gibson Middle School in the village of Sebela. This school just began participating in the Girls Project in the 19/20 school year. Here’s what Mariam had to say:
I am called Mariam Sangaré. I am 14 years old. I am from a village (Massakoni), 2 km away from our school in Sebela. I wake up at 6 am to do my household work then I go to school. I leave my village, Massakoni, at 7:00 am and arrive at school at 7:45 am in Sebela.
Before the middle school in Sebela was builit our older brothers and sisters walked 4 kilometres to go to Kokoun, where there was a middle school. When I graduated from the primary school to the 7th grade, we had an informal middle school in Sebela but it was built in mud and the roof was made with straw. We had to clean the classrooms every day because the donkeys spent the night in them. When it rained, we had to leave the school for home because the roof of straw would leak terrible. Sometimes there were snakes in our classroom! Today, thanks to the very beautiful classrooms built by Mali Rising, we can study in the best conditions near our own village.
I like science subjects like math, biology, physics, chemistry, and English too. History and geography are very difficult for me and they are hard to memorize. I like science because I would like to be an eye doctor. Many people have eye problems and the eyes have a very important role in one's life, so I think this would be a good and important career.
As soon as I can afford it, I will build schools and health centers for my village because thanks to the school I was able to study and it made me able to become a doctor.
I am just a little bit concerned because this year has not been a successful one due to the teachers' strike and the outbreak of COVID-19. Otherwise I have had good grades at the beginning.
Learn more about Tim Gibson Middle School. Learn more about the Girls Project.
Missing School in the Time of COVID-19
Ousmane Samaké is a 7th grader in The Mindful Bunch Middle school in the village of Kafara. He is 15 years old and says he misses his classmates so much. Ousmane has not been in school for months because of teacher’s strike in Mali followed by the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the whole world. Read more about Ousmane…
Adama, Inspiration Scholar & Future Member of Parliament
One of our most popular projects for donors is the Inspiration Scholar Project. Inspiration Scholarships sponsored by donors allow our most outstanding graduates to go on to high school or vocational training such as nursing, farming, or construction. Here’s a first person story from one of our current Inspiration Scholars, Adama Sangaré…
Resources for Learning While Staying Home
Like you, I am adjusting to our new reality here at Mali Rising’s U.S. office (read: my house). Because we want to contribute in our own small way, we are working on a web page with fun learning resources for both adults and children wanting to use our time at home to learn and grow. It will take a few days to get that resource list up and running, so we thought we would share some initial stay-at-home resources here to keep you going
