As a board member it can be tough to keep up with what is new and exciting at Mali Rising. In this section of your Virtual Board Retreat, I link short features on three new pieces of work we are piloting. Other new efforts are underway, but these three are particularly relevant right now. Check these out and share your questions on this post or in the next board meeting:
1) Speech Up! Video Contest: Launching November 1 for U.S.-based high school students. This contest is designed to engage young people in our work and international issues generally by asking them to respond to a prompt in a short, videoed speech. Winners will be announced in 2021. This campaign will help Mali Rising: 1) recruit more youth volunteers, 2) raise our profile publicly, and 3) engage all supporters on social media.
2) Take-Home Workbooks for Kids: First piloted during the COVID-19 school closures, we are continuing this campaign for the first six months of 2021. The idea is to provide short, simple workbooks children can do at home to keep their language skills fresh when school closures occur…but we also think they may be useful when school is open. We are piloting this in five villages. Testing of both ideas is on-going, and initial results have been positive.
3) School Health Clubs: This idea was actually started pre-COVID, but is more relevant than ever! Clubs were halted when school closed in March, but this fall we have geared them back up with a big focus on COVID prevention. We are piloting this currently in four villages.
