Breaking Down Barriers To Girls' Enrollment

by Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Manager

Alimatou and Sira in front of their new middle school classroom at Sue Taylor Middle School.

One of the times I feel most proud of my work in the Girls’ Project is when I can help girls who don't want to go back to school or parents who don't want to enroll their daughters in school. Talking through issues with the girls and the parents and seeing them shift to being passionate about girls’ education is just so rewarding!

As the school year began last month in Mali, one of my  first priorities was to ensure that many girls could be enrolled in the Girls’ Project partner schools. To this end, we made radio announcements and meet directly with many families.  For the most part, these strategies resulted in great enrollment numbers in the schools.

However, despite all my work I knew there were still some girls who were not yet registered for school in October. For example, in the village of Diorila, the principal of our partner school there informed us that the principal of the primary school in Léna -- one of the neighboring villages of Diorila whose pupils usually go to the middle school of Diorila -- had told him that two girls from his school were not enrolling.

I immediately went to Léna to speak to the principal and then to meet with the parents of these two girls. Each girl faced a different barrier to her continued education. The first girl, Alimatou , did not have a birth certificate and her parents thought that meant she could not attend school. The second girl, Sira, was about to be sent to Bamako to look for work to earn money for the family.

For the first family, I was able to assure them that the lack of a birth certificate was not a barrier to enrolment for Alimatou. The parents were pleasantly surprised and quite happy to enroll their daughter. With Sira’s family, the discussion was a bit tougher because the family really needed the funds Sira might earn in Bamako. However, after a discussion of the longer-term economic benefits for the family of keeping Sira in school, they too agreed to enroll their daughter.

Our intervention was able to solve the problems of both girls and they started school just one week late. Given the distance between Diorila and the village of Léna, the two girls settled in Diorila with one of their relative's acquaintances. In exchange, their parents will send sacks of rice to help the host family in Diorila.

Many girls in Mali’s rural villages see their future destroyed by a simple problem or barrier like this. One of the simplest things the Girls’ Project can do is work with families to problem solve and break down these small barriers.

Double Your Donation During Days of Giving!

By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

Our 3-day Gift of Education Days of Giving event starts today, and we need your help! This is our biggest fundraising effort of the year, and is critical for providing the support Mali Rising students need to make the most of this school year. Plus, gifts during Days of Giving are matched by the Johnson Family…which means each donation is TWICE as valuable! Can you help?

As part of the Mali Rising community, you are part of changing young people’s lives in Mali. Your gift of an education makes a difference for some great young people, and for a country facing both extreme poverty and on-going unrest.

With all of the uncertainty students face, going to school, curling up with a book, or playing soccer with our Girls’ Group teams are the little normalcies that allow kids to thrive in Mali. Those life-changing moments at school all come thanks to you and your generosity.

That’s why we are pulling together through the Days of Giving Gift of Education to raise $20,000 to provide the textbooks, teachers, girls’ support, and more students need to thrive during these tough times.

Your gift will mean twice as much during Days of Giving. The Johnson family has offered a generous challenge – if you give by November 6, they will match every dollar donated up to $10,000, DOUBLING the value of your donation. So if you give $10 for a textbook, that will really be two textbooks. And if you can give $100 to sponsor a girl to stay in school for a year, that’s actually two girls’ lives you will change for the better.

Please donate today to see your donation doubled! You can select from among a variety of great sponsorship items – from textbooks to girls' soccer to scholarships. Want to do more? Please help us reach our $20,000 goal by spreading the word to your friends or sharing our posts on social media.

PS Whether you can give or not, you are invited to a free, 30-minute online celebration on Sunday, November 13. Come get up close and personal with the students at one of our schools and learn more about the impact of your gift -- the event is free, rsvp is required.

Launching the Girls' Project in Sankama

by Hindaty Traore, Girls’ Project Manager

As we near the beginning of the new school year in Mali, I am busy meeting with leaders and parents in Mali Rising’s new Girls’ Project villages. Recently, I visited one of the five new villages – Sankama – to kick off our partnership with the girls of the village.

Mali Rising Foundation built Judge Memorial Middle School just a few years ago in Sankama. Before the construction of the classrooms, the students of the village walked 3 to 7 kilometers to get to the nearest middle schools. Because of this distance, many students dropped out of school, especially girls. Now, thanks to our generous donors, the students study in their home village and in complete safety.

Meeting with the School Management Committee — kind of like our school board idea — in Sankama’s Judge Memorial Middle School to discuss launching the Girls’ Project in the village.

In order to be able to start the activities of the Girls’ Project in Sankama, we met the members of the School Management Committee. This Committee is made up of leaders and the parents of pupils of the village. At our meeting, I  officially announced the arrival of the Girls’ Project in their villages and the activities we will carry out over the next three years. The village chief and the parents were all happy with what the Project will do for their daughters as girls’ education is one of the big challenges in the village.

Whenever I visit a village, the parents are very happy to receive the Girls’ Project support. This is even more true in the village of Sankama because they have just discovered a gold panning mine in Sankama town itself, which will lead many students to leave the school for mining.

The parents think the Girls’ Project could be a way to talk with the students about the consequence of dropping out of school for mine work or early marriage. They also hope this will allow girls and parents to know the importance of education for girls.

Now in Mali, many see the search for gold as the quickest way to become rich and afford everything one wants without having to go through the work of an education. Because the parents of Sankama students are very worried about the future of their children after the discovery of the gold mine, they are ready to support the Girls’ Project.

During the meeting in Sankama, a woman leader named Fatoumata Doumbia told her little story about the importance of a girl's education. When she got married in Sankama, every day her husband read a little book and smiled at the same time. She wondered what was funny in this book. She wanted to know what was in the book but unfortunately she could neither read nor write.

A few years later, an NGO brought a women's literacy project to Sankama. As soon as she heard that she rushed to register. After the first one-year training she already knew how to do the calculations and she had learned a lot orally but she still couldn't write. The first time she was able to write her name by herself was a great joy for her. Thanks to this training, she is consulted for everything that happens in Sankama and now manages to read the book that her husband was reading.

“I love your purpose of the Girls’ Project and would like to take the opportunity of your meetings with the girls to share this story with the girls so that they know that when you are educated you become important in the eyes of the community and the whole world,” Mrs. Doumbia said.

We look forward to working with the girls – and parents – of Sankama over the next three years to get more girls into school and help them thrive there!