'Tis the season for holiday giving. We could just try the cute child strategy and show you this picture of Tonton, our youngest kindergartener. How could you resist buying him more markers?
But really, the reasons to donate to support our work go beyond Tonton tugging at your heartstrings. If you've been reading this blog, you already know the situation our students face. To remind you, we work in the country with the worst recorded literacy rate in the world (fewer than 1 in 4 Malian adults can read and write), where thousands of children never go to school, and those who do see the inside of a classroom face massive overcrowding, teachers with little or no training, and an education system that is, at best, outdated. For girls, the situation is even worse, with fewer than 1 in 5 literate Malian women and the country's recent rating as the 5th worst place on earth to be born female.
One of the great, if often heart wrenching, things about our project is that it gives us a window into these issues on the very human scale of the students we see every day. I am currently watching a 9th grader slowly make his way through a book designed to teach reading to preschoolers. This same student often comes to help me in the library when his teachers show up late to class, often by more than an hour. When he is in class, he sits with around 60 other students in a dark room. If he doesn't pass the exams looming at the end of the year, he will most likely never go to high school.
The good news though, is that we also see the flip side. In the three weeks since we opened the library, this same student has come to read almost every day. He has almost finished his book and yesterday he translated an entire sentence from English to French by himself (English is a main subject on his crucial exams). Rokia, one of our 8th graders, is consistently blowing us away with her English skills and is extremely generous in helping her classmates. The school's guard has three children who come to the library every single day at lunch. Neither of their parents went to school, they cannot speak French, and they certainly cannot read. Granted, the kids often practice their karate moves instead of reading (see picture) until I use my limited Bambara to get them sitting down, but they show a genuine love of the books that is shared by almost every student at the school. The youngest one is starting to improve his letter recognition, even as he continues his mischievous antics.
The relatively small acts we accomplish, and which your donation can support, are having a big impact on the 450 or so students at this school. We see it every day and you've heard many of the stories on this blog. Aminata who “comes to read the books” starting now in 1st grade has a better chance of rewriting her future as a woman in Mali. Ousmane has more chances to improve his vocabulary and his French, to pass his exams and to go on to become a journalist and tell the world more about what matters to him.
What it comes down to is this: if you donate to us this Holiday Season you will help...
- Employ 5 intelligent, motivated, educated Malians who are taking this chance to change their community.
- Give the 450 students at Maourou Diarra (and their friends from the neighborhood who come to the library) access to more books, more windows on the world, more words to speak and write, more chances to express themselves, and more opportunities to be well informed.
- Bring more individual attention and creative learning opportunities to children who desperately need it.
- ...and buy Tonton some new markers.
Thank you, and happy holidays!
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