Mali Rising’s goal is to see our students succeed, which means helping them stay connected with learning even during a pandemic. To that end, our ongoing take-home workbook project continues to make difference for our kids and makes many parents proud of their children. An example of these outcomes can be found at The Mindful Bunch Middle School of Kafara. Students at this partner school have been working hard to make their parents proud of them. Although school was closed for months due to the pandemic, students at The Mindful Bunch Middle School have been working hard on our take-home workbooks, staying connected with learning and language.
A Backpack Full of Supplies & Motivation!
During the start of this 2020-2021 school year, school kits were distributed to the top 15 girl students in the the five partner schools (Diorila, N'tentou, Sebela, Tamala and Zambougou) where the Girls Project is active. These girls received the kits as a reward for their good school work, which motivates all the girls to work hard in class! Below is a the story from one of our best girls at the Denik Middle School in Zambougou. She is the top of her class — beating out both boys and girls for the honor.
Get Involved in Read to Mali
Show Some Love! Volunteer...
You may not be that into all the hearts and flowers this month, but there’s a better way to show your love — through volunteering! This month, Mali Rising is offering two options to help spread the love through our volunteer project and we hope you’ll join in the fun. Each short online event — we call these Volunteer Evenings — will focus on one, specific volunteer opportunity. We will provide all the information you need to get started and answer any questions you may have.
Good Principals Make Good Schools
Mr. Konaté is one of our principals who impresses us with their great school results and strong relationships with their partners like school committee, local educational department, and non-governmental organizations. At a recent Principal Peer Meeting, we had a chance to talk with him about his school and how he runs it so well.
Our Powerful Girls Apply Their Power to Reading!
Reading is the heart of knowledge, yet many children in Mali cannot read. In fact, many students fail school all together because, when you do not know how to read the lesson, you cannot learn the lesson nor understand its meaning. This is a problem we must address! As Mali’s new school year begins this month, I am helping our Girls’ Project girls improve their reading ability through our study sessions.
Konimba: Working Hard Even During A Pandemic
During this uncertain pandemic time, Mali Rising is working in five of our partner villages to test take home workbook as a tool for keeping students learning when schools are closed due to the pandemic. One of the villages where we have done this work is Sebela. We recently visited with the high scoring workbook student of Sebela, Konimba, and her father.
Volunteers Needed: You Can't Improve What You Don't Measure!
By Merritt Frey, Executive Director
How do you measure a great education? You tell us! In 2021, Mali Rising is overhauling our approach to measuring the quality of education in our remote, rural Mali schools. We are searching for 2 to 3 people with skills in education, monitoring, and evaluation to help us really understand how to change lives through education.
Advisors will engage with our board committee (Internal Affairs Committee) on this issue and devote 4 to 6 hours a month to research and discussion. We ask Advisors to commit to 10 months of engagement (March-December) if possible. In exchange, Advisors will get to know a wonderful group of volunteers, explore how education works in a different culture, and have access to special content from Mali and our schools.
Interested in learning more and perhaps getting involved? Contact Merritt.
Keeping Students Connected to Learning
Just like everyone else around the world, Mali Rising staff and students have had to make a lot of “pivots” over the last year. Although that term may be over-used these days, it remains a central part of our new reality. Flexibility has become our new core skill, as closed schools and other problems challenge attempts to keep children learning. As part of our pivoting, we have developed and distributed take-home workbooks that allow our students to stay connected with learning and language during their extended break.
Helping Girls Leap From Primary to Middle School
One of the Girls’ Project goals is to have more girls graduate from middle school. To achieve that goal, we must first make sure that girls make the leap from 6th grade (primary school) to 7th grade (middle school). As part of our strategies to help girls make that leap, we have been talking to the families of the girls who were in the 6th grade and are now supposed to be enrolled in 7th grade in January 2021. These meetings are focused on trying to convince parents to keep girls in school, but also to see if there are any obstacles that would prevent girls from moving on to 7th grade. In December 2020, we talked with 18 families.
Each family had a different reason why they were considering removing their girls from school. One common issue is that families think that when a girl turns 15 she must be married. This belief makes it much more difficult to convince families to let their daughters continue in school, and perhaps into vocational training to get a job.
