This year the Girls Project has respected the tradition it has established during the first year of the project in 2016: to bring together, after nine months of hard work by girls, parents of students, teachers, and students to pay tribute to each person for their involvement during the school year. We call this event Feast for Feedback, because it is both a celebration and a chance for the whole village to be involved with the Girls Project. So, this year in the school yard of Kolimba on a Saturday like no other, parents of students, teachers, and girls shared a day of joy dedicated to the schooling of girls.
The Way To Our Hearts? A Recipe From Mali
Note: One of the best parts of getting to know another culture is getting to know its food! Hindaty, our wonderful Girls Project Coordinator, shares her one of her favorite Mali recipes for your consideration. This month, I will share with you the recipes of one of my favorite dishes, called "yassa.” Yassa is a dish from West Africa that is prepared with onion. As in Mali we have large families, I will show you the recipe for yassa for 10 people
Mali's "Attics" -- Not Like Your Grandmother's Attic!
"Yogoro and Salawalé": Practices that bring cheerfulness to Malian society during the month of Ramadan.
Our Girls Project Coordinator would like to share with you a traditional practice that is happening in Mali during the month of Ramadan. This practice is intended to claim donations (grains and money), but with humor The "Yogoro" for boys and the "Salawalé-walé" for girls is a very old practice whose origin is lost in the dawn of time. This would be as old as our society. Every year in Mali, from the 10th to the 20th night of the month of Ramadan, we witness the influx of children into the streets of cities to indulge in this practice of their fathers, mothers and grandfathers, grandmother, when they were their age. Thus, the tradition was immortalized as generations followed each other.
Welcoming the Stranger, Mali Style
Joking Kinship in Mali: A Tool for Social Cohesion
Outtakes From Travels in Mali
Our trips to Mali are packed full of beautiful, excited students. So our photos tend to feature those great kids. Great kids, and loving shots of the Mali Rising school buildings. But we know so of the most interesting things are the little peeks at life in Mali. So, we’re sharing a few of our favorite non-kid, non-school (mostly) photos from the trip here…
Textbooks = A Dancing, Singing, Village-Wide Celebration
Wow. I get excited about a new book, but the village of Beneko REALLY gets excited. I mean – they literally throw a party! Thanks to the generosity of Mike and Bonnie King and dozens of their friends, last week we delivered more than 1,000 textbooks to our middle school in the remote village of Beneko. See the party Beneko threw to welcome their new textbooks...
Ready For Some Friday Fun? So Are We.
It's Friday afternoon here at Mali Rising's U.S. offices and we're feeling a little slap-happy. So, I thought I'd share a short video from our recent school expedition in Mali. Please feel free to laugh as I try to learn that most basic of skills for a Mali woman -- how to carry water on my head. A three-year-old child can do it. But can I?
Celebrating A New School & A New Future
On November 14, we did one of the most amazing and most overwhelming things you can do -- we officially opened a new Mali Rising school. The celebratory opening in the tiny village of Sebela was simply incredible, with hundreds of excited children, wonderful dancers, dozens of dignitaries, and much more.
