Election Day!

It's election day in Mali, the first since the military coup that interrupted 20 years of democracy and the rebellion that took over the north of the country. The BBC has excellent coverage here.

Today is about the people of Mali making their voices heard, so here's Robert Berthé, one of our Malian directors:

"People are motivated to vote July 28th. According to polls, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will be the next president. Everyone expects a big change in Mali in every arena. And I find that this organization is better organized than those that came before."

Robert is serving as the director of a voting center in Niamakoro today. When we heard from him two days ago, he said he was expecting to see many parents of our NEP students and a couple students as well turn out to vote. The hardships of the last two years seem to have motivated many people to come out and try to shape the future of the country. We hope these elections go smoothly and safely for the citizens of Niamakoro and for all Malians.

Exciting News from Niamakoro!

The results are in...

And they are awesome! The all important DEF results for 2012-13 are in! (To learn more about the DEF and its importance for our students, check out this post). Out of 123 9th graders at Maourou Diarra, 109 passed the DEF and will be moving on to high school. This is a pass rate of 88%! Remember, in the 2010-11 school year, before NEP came to work at Maourou the pass rate was only 20%. Students at Maourou are now 4 times as likely to pass the DEF and move on high school as they were two years ago. This progress is amazing, but we still have so much more work to do. At École Saint Pierre, where the NEP operates Saturday cours privés but does not have a library, only 64 students out of 138 passed the DEF. This still represents an increase over last year, but a 46% pass rate  is not acceptable. What we know, though, is that every single student that regularly attended Saturday cours privés at either school passed his or her DEF. We are succeeding in our mission to increase educational access for the children of Niamakoro, but we want to do more. Want to help us continue this incredible success? See how here.

A difficult year

As we mentioned in our last post, the time since we left Mali has not been an easy one. A country that had been held up as an example of successful democracy for the last 20 years went through a military coup, a Tuareg rebellion coopted by Al Qaeda that conquered almost half the country, and an armed French intervention to push back that rebellion. I could describe these events, but in this case I will leave it to the professionals at the New York Times and their interactive timeline:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/18/world/africa/mali-algeria-timeline.html#/#time231_7133

For our staff and students in Niamakoro, these events brought many difficult changes. In our conversations these last several months, we heard about the closure of the school during the coup, city-wide curfews, food and fuel shortages, and a lot of mixed emotions at the arrival of the French army. Through it all, the NEP programs have continued in the service of the community and the future leaders of the country. To see some photos from library activities during this tumultuous time, check out our 2012-13 School Year album.

With the arrival of the UN peacekeepers this month and presidential elections scheduled for July 28th, it will be very interesting to see what happens next. Stay tuned for some Malian voices on these crucial moments for the country.

We're Back!

Hello Wonderful NEP Supporters!

It has been a long time since our last blog entry, but while our blog writers have been quiet, the work in Niamakoro has been anything but. We are celebrating the relaunch of our blog with three (and a half) BIG pieces of NEP news from the year we’ve missed.

1. Ninth graders show AMAZING results on the DEF.

Remember these guys?

Three of our 9th grade girls studying French grammar

In June of 2012, our first class of 9th graders took the critical DEF exam, which decides their academic futures. The pass rate at our two schools rose from 20% in 2011 (before the NEP arrived) to 67%, by far the highest of any school in Niamakoro. We are extremely proud of their hard work, and look forward to seeing where high school takes them. Our second class of 9th graders took the DEF 3 weeks ago. Their NEP teachers, Robert and Fidel, report that they were well prepared and the subjects were “theirs for the taking.” We can’t wait to hear their results!

2. The library provides a calm place in turbulent times.

Soldiers massing at ORTM, Malian state media, during the coup in March, 2012

Student artists at work with Baissou

As many of you know, this last year and half has not been a peaceful one for Mali. We’ll be providing more information here and on Facebook, but for now we want to shine a light on the hard work of NEP employees to help our students and our community during the coup and subsequent unrest. Though school was closed for several weeks, our students approached NEP staff and asked for the library to be opened. We thank our staff for providing children in Niamakoro with a place to learn and read and a sense of normalcy in highly unusual times. Academically and socially this was an invaluable service.

3. Learning is FUN in Niamakoro.

Robert works with kindergarteners building paper airplanes

One of the best things about our time since leaving Mali has been receiving bi-weekly updates from our staff in Niamakoro. Since I have become a public school teacher here in the States, we have had a great time sharing stories and strategies. Though Robert often complains that the younger children “treat him like their grandfather,” it is clear that he is doing a remarkable job of broadening their horizons with new kinds of learning. This is what the NEP is all about and we are thrilled!

3.5 I did say three and a half things. That’s because we have a couple of very exciting NEW programs, designed by our Malian staff that will be coming online very soon. Keep your eyes open for details!

We need your help to sustain our success, click here to see what you can do!