Mothers Standing Up for Girls

By Hindaty Traore, Girls’ Project Manager

It's a Friday morning under a blazing sun in the village of Sankama – home to Judge Memorial Middle School. A group of more than forty people sitting in the school’s Grade 8 classroom with me sat right in front. In front of the crowd, I lead a meeting with the mothers of students in Sankama, a member of the school management committee, and the school principal.

All families are committed to the academic success of their children. However, this success depends on the dialogue between school staff and parents as well as their involvement in supporting their children's education.

To be able to monitor their children's schooling, parents must be well informed of the results, but also of their child's academic behavior. All of these rights were reminded to the mothers during the meeting.

The involvement of parents is very important in the education of girls, especially that of mothers. In Mali Rising Foundation partner villages, we have noticed that parents are less interested in monitoring their children. Everyone sends their child to school but do not know that they have a role to play for the success of their child.

To help change this dynamic, we decided to organize meetings with the women each village to discuss the importance of their involvement in the education of their daughters and how they can do it. We also explained the importance of girls' success for families and the country as a whole. Through the various interventions, we found that mothers do not go to school to know the progress of their daughters, do not follow them at home, and give the girls a lot of domestic work which limits their ability to study.

 In our partner villages, women's modest incomes do not allow them to hire someone to help them with housework, so girls help their mothers every day. This means that girls devote less time to schoolwork than school. They have less time to learn and do their homework and this negatively affects their school performance, sometimes causing dismissal or dropping out.

Through our various discussions, the women learned how to help her daughters at home after school, how to go to school each month to check on her child's progress, how to lighten the housework to give time to study and learn.

For the best functioning of the involvement of the mothers of students, we have agreed to hold two meetings a year for the women to discuss their issues and problems. In between these meetings, the women leaders in each village will also remind the mothers of students to follow and give time to their daughters at home, to check in with the school on their daughters’ progress, and other basic strategies.

Sali Diawara's two daughters study at Judge Memorial Middle School in Sankama. Sali says she is involved in the education of her daughters. She explains: “I don’t give my daughters chores when they have to go to school. They only help me on weekends. I would also like them to take private lessons but unfortunately I don’t have enough means.”

Sali herself had the chance to go to school. But she could not continue her schooling because of an early marriage, and she wants her daughters to have a different fate from hers. Thanks to her commitment, her daughters obtain good results -- they are always among the best in their classes. This story encouraged other women at the meeting to do like Sali so that their daughters could succeed too.

The teaching staff of the school also want to help reduce the household responsibilities of girls. Ibrahim Diarra is the principal of Judge Memorial Middle School in Samkama. With his colleagues, they want to organize at least one meeting with parents and traditional and religious leaders to encourage them to support girls' education.

Sankama's mothers talk during the meeting.

Sankama's girls outside of the school.

Sali shared her own story of helping her daughters succeed.

Mah committed to doing all she can to give her daughters time to study.

The school committee president (left) and the principal (right) at the meeting.

Mr. Diarra explains: “We will raise parents’ awareness of the need to reduce girls’ workload so that they have time to devote themselves to their studies. This is important for their academic success.”

Mah Coulibaly is a housewife in Sankama. She lives with her husband and children. They have two daughters at school. She says: “We don’t have enough resources. My daughters sell my wares. They also help me with other activities. I am aware that this affects their studies. But, I have no one else to help me. I would try to do everything possible to give them time to learn the lessons.”

I drew inspiration from my own story to raise awareness of how girls have more time for their studies when they don't need to spend too much time on household chores. I explained that I help the girls today because I was able to focus on my studies. We concluded our meeting with a short quote “When girls fail, the whole your community has failed, because it is your duty to ensure a better future for them.”

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!