educational quality

Keeping Girls Safe During the Pandemic

Mali was one of the last West African countries to have confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The country recently confirmed their first cases in late March. Since that time, the government has taken measures to limit the spread of the pandemic, including the closing of schools, meetings of more than 50 people, curfew from 8 p.m., etc. Despite this difficult moment that Mali is going through, we continue to work from home because we care a lot about our partner villages. In such a situation, it is necessary to think of alternatives.

Mali Rising's Health Project & COVID-19

Mali Rising's Health Project & COVID-19

Yesterday on the blog, I introduced just the tip of the iceberg of the new, creative strategies the staff in Mali are tackling in order to help our students in Mali during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we hear directly from Mali Rising’s Teacher Project Coordinator, Adama Kone. Adama leads our work with teachers, but he also directs our Health Project. As a result, Adama is on the front lines of figuring out how to best help our students.

Helping to Protect Mali's Kids During the Pandemic

Helping to Protect Mali's Kids During the Pandemic

Today’s blog is a bit more of a vlog, if that is still a thing. We wanted to speak with you as directly as possible about what we are doing in Mali to help our students during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, starting with today’s short video, the staff will be sharing updates about how we are changing our work as quickly as possible to be helpful.

Covid-19, Mali, and Mali Rising

As we wrote about a week or so ago, COVID-19 was slow to be confirmed in Mali. However, Mali reported their first 2 confirmed cases of COVID-19 last Wednesday, and today (Monday) the WHO places the total number of confirmed cases at 18. We are heartbroken and worried for everyone in Mali. Like you, we are all figuring out the best ways to move through this new reality. Our first concern is for our students, their families, and our dedicated Malian staff. Although we took early steps to make sure we limited the risk of spreading the virus into our partner villages, we are thinking fast on our feet about how we can still best serve our students and villages over the long haul. As you might imagine, online learning is not an option in rural Malian villages! The government closed schools for 3 weeks, and we expect it to be longer by the time all is said and done, so we need to get creative….fast.

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

Advisers Needed! We're Looking For A Few Special Volunteers

Mali Rising is a small organization that does a whole lot. How can we do it? A lot of it comes down to great, dedicated volunteers. Currently, we are looking for a few very specific volunteers to help us by serving as Advisers in key areas.

When We Talk About School, We Talk About Teachers!

When we talk about school, we talk about teachers! And when we talk about teachers, we are also talking about students! This is because a well-trained, dedicated teacher makes good students. Mr Mama Diallo is one of our brave teachers. He is a French teacher at Lareen Mellor Middle School in the village of Kassela. He is very devoted to his job.

Travelogue: Day 7 -- A Trip to the Market, and to Two schools

Day 7 of traveling was a very full Friday indeed. In the morning, we visited the Sue Taylor Middle School of Diorila, which is about one and a half hours down a bumpy dirt road. We returned to Ouelessebougou for lunch and a trip to the big Friday market, before zipping down the road to visit our Sue Chung Chiu Middle School in Simidiji.

Travelogue: Day 6 -- Visiting the Ks, Kafara & Kolimba

On this Thursday morning we woke in the big city of Bamako, but immediately headed south to the “big” town of Ouelessebougou. Ouelessebougou is home to our own kind of “home-away-from-home” hotel for me, the staff, and Tim, but it was a new experience for Courtney. As hotels go, it is pretty basic — no hot water, no sheets, no towels, etc. BUT it does have a wonderful mango tree in a little courtyard that serves us quite well as an office and living room. Before making ourselves at home at the hotel though, we had to get some work done. First, we visited the village of Kafara and then we headed on the long drive to Kolimba.