As part of my job at Mali Rising, I have the pleasure of helping to identify, select, and track our Inspiration Scholars. These young people are especially outstanding Mali Rising graduates who receive scholarships to continue their education. I just love hearing their stories when I check in on their progress so I wanted to share one such story with our supporters. This is what Awa told me in her own words:
Jumpstarting Language Skills
Students in Mali face many challenges, but maybe the largest is that classes are taught in a language – French – which is not their mother tongue. If a student doesn’t quickly learn French, they fall behind in all of their classes, from history to math. That’s why Mali Rising runs the French Language Intervention Project, aka FLIP. FLIP helps 7th graders improve their French skills in speaking and writing, as well as their vocabulary and comprehension. This helps students understand their teachers in the classroom, as well as making it possible for them to read their texbooks or ask questions during class.
Mandio Gets Determined
Sue Taylor Middle School in Diorila is one of our schools where the girls had a lot of difficulty overcoming obstacles to their education. But there are girls who still stand up and overcome those obstacles. Seventeen-year-old Mandio D. is one of the girls from Girls’ Project who decided to be agents of change in their community.
Great Girls Read Gives a Huge Lift
In Mali, all too often we find that students who diligently attend school still cannot read. Based on my own personal observations, I would estimate that around 80% of middle school students are not able to read a sentence correctly in French and 85% of elementary students are not able read aloud a simple sentence like “My school is pretty.”
Through the Girls’ Project’s Great Girls Read campaign, I am focused on changing this dynamic for our girls. I am particularly passionate about focusing on reading with our elementary school girls, because if they can learn reading young it will set them way ahead in middle school!
Mother Teaching Assistants Make a Difference
The Hope of Noumousso
Turning a Sewing Machine Into a Bright Future
This fall, Awa L. Toure received an Inspiration Scholarship from the Mali Rising Foundation. These scholarships are designed to help our most outstanding students continue their education and build independent, bright futures for themselves. Awa is already on the road to her dream future at tailor school!
New Villages for a New Year of the Girls' project
Mali Rising’s Girls’ Project strives to get more girls into school and help them succeed and thrive once they are there. In the past six years, we’ve helped girls in eight different villages get into school and stay there. This summer, we are selecting five new villages for intensive work via the Project. We are excited to announce those new villages today.
Boys See Benefits For Everyone When Girls Are Educated
As part of work to help girls get into school and succeed there, Mali Rising Foundation works with boys. Why boys? Because we need them to be allies for the girls in their classrooms and their sisters at home! I lead regular discussion groups with boys in our partner schools to help them think through the benefits of girls’ education and their role in making it possible. Recently, we hosted a boys’ discussion group at Sue Taylor Middle School in Diorilia. Eighty-seven boys at the discussion!
A Little Reward Goes a Long Way
Encouraging and recognizing good work done is an effective way to develop a taste for learning. Indeed, reward is an extrinsic motivator that prompts the student to improve certain behaviors, providing conditions that facilitate their motivation and learning.
It is in this context that the Girls’ Project gave gifts to 15 most outstanding girl students from last school year in the five villages of Girls’ Project -- Zambougou, Sebela, Dorila, Tamala and N'Tentou. This was done both to reward the girls for their hard work and to create competition among all the girls to study hard.
