Are you an expert in communications, marketing, or public relations? We need you! We’re looking for a few knowledgeable experts to donate approximately 6 hours of time in February and March to help Mali Rising grow.
Our Supporters Make a HUGE Difference
You did it! Thank you to everyone who has donated to the Days of Giving Campaign. Because of you, we exceeded our $20,000 Gift of Education Giving Challenge goal and met the $20,000 match, raising a total of $48,955 for our students. Thank you! Your generosity means…
Learning Vs. Eating: A Real Dilemma for Students & Families
It usually rains more often from July through August in Mali, which is summer vacation for students. During this time, many parents rely on their children when it comes to working in millet, corn, peanut fields. This leads to a real dilemma when school reopens — do students stay in the fields or return to class?
Floods Become the Norm in Mali
This year, heavy rains have caused flooding and landslides across Mali including in urban areas. This increases the high risk of flooding that can lead to loss of crops and material goods in exposed localities. Unfortunately, this flooding is exactly what we have seen recently in many parts of Mali.
The Beauty of Mali: People, Music, History, & More
With so much bad news coming out of Mali these days, I thought it would be helpful to explore some brighter spots of news, history, and more from Mali. This is an eclectic tasting platter of some things I hope will take you beyond the depressing headlines to learn just a little more about a beautiful place and people. So for a little Friday fun, check out this small collection of videos…
Debating a New Education Policy: No Cheating
Child Begging: A Real Problem in Mali
By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Coordinator
Some people think the kids in big cities have an easier time that kids in our small partner villages, but that is not always the case. Take begging for example. Begging is one of the hardest things that authorities have been trying to address in Mali. Beggars in Mali are usually kids although now we see all ages involved.
Still, most beggars are young children and it is a risky business. The most common beggars are sets off twins because many people think that it is culturally right to turn your children into beggars if they are twins. Kids are sent out on busy roads to beg, risking accidents in the road or danger from strangers. Sometimes people even make their children look like twins and send them out begging!
Unfortunately, begging has recently taken on dramatic proportions to the point of becoming a real problem Malian society. This practice is well known because it happens in every single busy roads in Mali.
In my own neighborhood, I know Fousseyni and Awa who are 8-year-old twins. They spend every day begging in front of a mosque with their mother. The twins also walk long distances every day in order to beg in other neighborhoods. The twins told me that on their walks they meet students of their age who are attending school. Fousseyni said these kids seem so cheerful and carefree to him.
Their mother dropped her twins out of school so they could beg full-time. If they were enrolled, they would have been in 3rd grade. She explained to me that she did not have the correct paperwork to send the twins to school and their father did not support this in any case.
A band of young boys waits by the road to beg in Adama’s neighborhood.
In the long run, some children who grow up begging turn to crime because they grow out of the age to beg but have no education or skills for fall back on. That is the reason the government has been trying hard to stop the practice with no success. In fact, some times child beggars can make other kids drop out of school too by going out with them on streets and showing them how to make quick money begging rather than working in school.
I share this sad story to illustrate just one of the many pressures on young people in Mali to drop out of school and earn a living to help their family. This is part of what inspires me to do the work I do – when I see how hard kids have to strive to get an education, I want to do anything I can to help them.
Announcing Our New Podcast!
Welcoming Andrea Lewis to our Board
Volunteers make an organization like Mali Rising work, and no volunteers are more vital that the board of directors. In March, a new board member joined Mali Rising — Andrea Lewis. Andrea jumped in to our work feet first, and we are incredibly excited to have us join us. As a long-timer producer at CNN, Andrea brings a great background in communications and story-telling to Mali Rising. I asked her to share her responses to a few questions to help our supporters get to know her as she takes on leadership at Mali Rising…
Textbooks: Tools We Take for Granted
As one of my former professors —Pr Ibrahim Sagayar — said: “A teacher or a student without a textbook is like a soldier on the battlefield without a weapon”. Yet all too often in Mali, teachers and students are not armed with textbooks. I recently discussed this problem with two of our partner principals — the principal of Sue Chung Chiu Middle School of Simidji, Mr. Essai Mikoro and the principal of Little Heroes Academy I Middle School of Mana, Mlle. Djenebou Niama Coulibaly.
