Blog
Today, October 5, is National Walk to School Day here in the United States, which is great. But for kids in Mali, every day is walk to school day. While here in the US walking to school is rightly encouraged as a good thing, in Mali it can be a huge problem. In fact, the distance kids face on that walk is often the most powerful factor driving them to drop out of school.
In late October, I had my first chance to visit a Mali Rising partner school. As a brand new staff person, I was so excited to finally see first-hand what we do and meet the great teachers and kids we work with. For my first trip, I went to the village of Sebela, which is home to Tim Gibson Middle School.
My name is Soumaila Doumbia. I am 17 years old. I am in the 8th grade at Christiana Norris Middle School in Banko. I live in Banko with my parents. My father is a preacher (seer). He teaches me a bit about what he does but it's my school studies that I love. My mother sells pancakes at the market. Last year for 7th grade, I traveled to a school in a village called Touban. Touban is 11 km from Banko. I made this trip by bike in 90 minutes with other boys from my village who attended the same school. I was often late and the bike often broke.
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