Literacy in Mali, Or Not.......

My dream is that someday everyone can at least write their name and do simple math.
Most of the artisans here in Koutiala can’t write their own name. When the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala (UAAK) has a meeting and the sign up sheet goes around some one who can write follows it around to write the names of the people who can’t.

The Peace Corps initiated the Shea Butter formation I organized last April because USAID offered a free trainer. USAID selects several initiatives, Sea being one of them. The Peace Corps in partnership with USAID trains the Small Enterprise Development and Environment sectors in processing Shea.

Even though the Sha training was a huge success I didn’t feel that it was a priority of the people I work with. The literacy formation however was a grassroots idea. The UAAK wrote the proposal including the budget. They even had a trainer who was available and well qualified. Koro (if you don’t know by now is my homologue and best friend here in Mali) and I agree that doing a literacy formation annually would be a great idea.

Figuring out what to do has not always easy. The first three months I fretted over how, what and who should I focus on in my service. When Macki my APCD came to site he helped by saying that I didn’t need to work with everyone and could focus on the Bogolan Association if that is what I wanted to do. During all this time weighing what I think “They” need and what they think they need was a challenge. With this literacy training I feel like I have reached out to all the people I came here to help.

In the literacy classes they are learning to read and write in Bamabara the local language as well as doing basic math. Two thirds of the class are women.

West Africa has a huge illiteracy population. It is even a bigger problem among women. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger still fewer than three in ten young women aged 15 to 24 can read and write. Not one of the nine countries here in West Africa with literacy rates below 50% in 2000-
2006 is expected to reach 50% literacy by 2015.

Mali the stats for total literacy rate among adults ages 15-49 is 23%; Male literacy rate 31%; Female literacy rate 16%;

Peace Corps Mali has stepped up their Education sector this year with 15 new volunteers. In my stage there were only six. When all us volunteers no matter what our sector do something about illiteracy here in Mali my dream may come true.