Mali

In MALI Batonga is:

granting scholarships: 75 girls have been awarded scholarships in Kidal in northen Mali, one of the toughest and most isolated places in the world. These girls, all of whom are disadvantaged, have overcome daunting obstacles to pursue their education. Batonga is supporting the scholars from grade 7 through grade 12 with scholarship packages that include tuition, uniforms, school supplies, mentoring, and community awareness activities that broadly promote girls' education.

NGO partner: World Education
In-country NGO partner: Aide à l'Enfant du Désert et du Sahel (AEDS)

Background

The Republic of Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa and home to an ancient culture whose civilization goes back thousands of years. Timbuctou is a northern city that was once the center of Islamic intellectual thought—renowned both for its unrivaled libraries and legendary wealth. At present, 90 percent of the population practices Islam.

Today Mali’s wealth lies in its people and its music. Its musical heritage includes the claim, reinforced by many scholars, that it was the inspiration for American Blues music. Unfortunately, today Mali is listed by the United Nations as one of the poorest countries on earth. Its infant mortality rate is amongst the highest in Africa. Ninety percent of its population survives on less than $2 a day and life expectancy at birth is only 44 years old for men and 47 for women. Mali is highly dependent on foreign aid despite its many natural resources including gold and uranium. Most people in Mali are subsistence farmers, even though less than 4 percent of the land is arable and can be used for agriculture.

Notwithstanding the best efforts of the government, educational opportunities are still scarce for both boys and girls in Mali. It has the world’s second-highest birth rate (the highest being its neighbor, Niger) with fully half its population under 15 years old. Half of the world’s uneducated children are in Africa, but Mali lags behind even most African nations in its percentage of children in primary school. Secondary school seems out of the reach for almost all but a few privileged children even though studies show that those who complete secondary school contribute the most to economic improvement.

Thanks partly to newfound economic growth in recent decades, the Ministry of Education reports that it more than doubled its spending per child between 1994 and 2004 to educate young people aged 6 through 14. In each of the past five years, Mali has averaged 667 newly built first through sixth-grade classrooms and 1,962 freshly hired first through ninth-grade teachers. 39% of AIDS orphans are now in school compared with 37 percent for the rest of children (according to UN AIDS). However, more than 90 percent of girls in Northern Mali do not attend secondary school despite the obvious benefits of secondary education in improving the lives of individuals, families and communities. Educated girls marry later and have fewer children, protect themselves against HIV-AIDS and generate more income for their families.

Batonga is focusing its efforts in northern Mali in order to increase the number of girls in secondary school there.