There has been great progress to the primary school in Dintiola over the past month. As you can see the construction is well underway and will be nearing completion soon.
Before long this structure will be home to many eager to learn children!
These are the eager students who will benefit from your generosity. They are in clear need of a safe place to learn. The new school will include three classrooms, one office/book storage room and a set of two latrines. At least 97 children (60 boys and 37 girls) will be enrolled at this school. The Village of Tionso is also willing to share the school with surrounding villages in need. If the infrastructure is built, the local board of education will be able to provide teachers to educate these students. Please consider helping as any donation goes a long way for this community!
Good news from our collaborators in Mali! Construction has begun on the new primary school in the village of Dintiola. This will be our 34th school! According to our volunteer Abou Coulibaly:
The project in Dintiola is off to a good start. Much of the procurement is completed, the team has started making the cinder blocks.
During the last week of October, our volunteer Abou Coulibaly visited the village of M’Pessoba to kick off the construction of a new elementary school. Here, Abou is meeting with members of the community and the vice-mayor.
The plan for M’Pessoba is to build 3 classrooms, an office/storeroom for the teachers, and two blocks of latrines. We estimate that the new school will enroll 220 children — 111 girls and 109 boys.
Currently, the children attend schools that are either overcrowded or far away from their village. As a result, the classrooms serve “double shifts” and children only attend for half the day. Other children have to walk several miles and cross a busy road, which puts them at risk of accidents. The new school will alleviate the overcrowding and provide a safe environment for learning.
Thanks to a number of generous donations over the last few months, we reached our fundraising goal for the new school in Diassidian, Mali.
Last year, we made the unusual decision to begin construction of a new school, knowing that we did not have enough funds to finish it. The community wanted to begin construction before the rainy season began, when the dirt roads turn into mud and transporting supplies becomes difficult.
This year’s rainy season was particularly intense across West Africa, and caused widespread flooding, the worse seen in decades. Each of Mali’s 20 regions was affected to some extent, and the government reported 30 deaths and the loss of hundreds of houses, latrines, and wells. In many areas, school buildings have been used as shelters. As a result of the flooding, the start of the school year was delayed from Oct.1 to Nov. 4.
This fall, the children of Diassidian will be able to start the school year off in bright, airy new classrooms.
Please join us in celebrating the completion of our 33rd school. We have already started planning for school #34 in M’Pessoba, Mali. Thank you again to all of our incredible donors who make this important work possible.
It is with deep sadness that we share the news that Build a School in Africa Director Judy Lorimer passed away in June.
Judy was a dear friend and we will miss her tremendously. Judy was with Build a School in Africa since its earliest days, first as a mentor to high school students raising money for charity in 2002, then making the organization “official,” and serving as director for over 20 years. Judy visited Mali many times over the years, and, as a former teacher herself, loved visiting the villages and meeting the teachers and schoolchildren. You can read Judy’s obituary at legacy.com.
Here is a touching remembrance from a friend and fellow African dancer, reprinted with permission:
The organization’s Board met on July 15, 2023, and asked Matthew Heberger, volunteer and long-time webmaster, to serve as acting director. Our priority is to finish building the school that is under construction in Diassidian, Mali, and to ensure that all funds the organization has received are used for their intended purpose — building schools in deserving communities in West Africa. If you have any questions or concerns, please be in touch at matt@buildaschoolinafrica.org.
Last month, we began construction of our 32nd school in the village of Diassidian, Mali (pronounced Jah-see-janh). We usually don’t start construction until we have all the funds needed, but our project managers Abou and Madou wanted to get the construction materials purchased and delivered before the rainy season begins and the dirt roads turn into axle-deep mud. So far, we have spent $12,000, but we still need another $4,000 USD to finish the school.
We need your help! Please consider making a donation to help finish building the new elementary school building in Diassidian.
All of our schools are a partnership with the local community, where we provide building materials like steel and cement, and pay the tradesman. In turn, the village provides sand and gravel and contributes labor.
The team is working fast to get as much done as possible with the funds on hand. They have already accomplished a great deal!
Great news! A donation by a group of high school students in Massachusetts puts us close to being able to build our 32nd school (!).
The Africa Club at Lincoln-Sudbury High School recently sent us $2,100. Last year, the club raised most of the funding for a new elementary school at Zangabougou, Mali.
That puts us within $3,000 of our next 2-room school. An additional $11,000 for would build a block of 3 classrooms. The next community on our waiting list is the village of Diassidian. We’d love for you to help us make that possible! Click Contribute to find out how easy it is.
Remember that, in addition to the funding we provide, communities make significant contributions to building schools, by providing sand, gravel, and labor. The new buildings often replace old mud-brick schoolrooms that are dark and dusty and require constant maintenance.
Dear Build supporters,
We are happy to announce that BSA celebrated our Twentieth Anniversary in 2022. By the end of the year, we will have built 31 schools — 30 more than our original goal of helping to build just one!
In January, 2022, we finished a middle school in the village of Kintieri, Mali. The school was funded by a couple from Australia, and coordinated with the Ripple Foundation. We managed some successful calls over Zoom to share progress reports. Coordinating meetings in Bamako and Sikasso with time zones in
Massachusetts and Australia was a bit of a challenge!
In mid-March, our joint project with Mali Rising was completed in the community of Tentoubougou. BSA contributed some cash, plus the construction expertise of our partners Abou Coulibaly and Madou Traore; the rest of the funding from Mali Rising came through a family foundation in Utah which has built several other schools for BSA in previous years. Most of our schools have been located in rural areas, but the Tentoubougou school is on the busy north-south highway between Bamako and Bougouni. Children will no longer have to cross the highway to get to their classes, which had presented a safety issue.
Our 30th school, a two-classroom building in Gagnobougou, was completed in May 2022. The school has about 150 pupils with 5 teachers. The old mud-brick classrooms did not meet the current government standards.
Many schools in Mali are still made with mud bricks, and the rooms tend be small, dark, and stuffy, and vulnerable to collapse during heavy rains. All our schools are made from durable concrete blocks, with 5 large windows and roof vents in each classroom, for adequate light and ventilation.
In early August I got an e-mail from a Canadian resident, inquiring about the cost of building school. He and his fiancée were interested in becoming involved. I’m very happy to report that, as a result of their gift, a new middle school is becoming a reality in Nankorola; in fact it’s almost finished.
The funding was in place by early September, and even though it was the middle of harvest time, he villagers wasted no time in gathering the materials, digging the foundations, and readying the site for the construction crews. By the middle of November, they were putting on the roof. It should be finished well before the end of the year and ready for the students when school starts again after the holiday break.
Future projects
There are at least two communities on our waiting list: Diassidian, near the city of Koutiala, and Sanonobougou. Fortunately, there are two major fund-raising projects in progress – a fast food restaurant in Australia and a school in California. Both have set the goal of raising enough to build in both villages, and some recent generous donations may make a third school possibility in 2023 . We are grateful for the generosity of our supporters, and every donation helps.
Here’s wishing you a Happy holidays and a joyful and healthy New Year!
– Judy Lorimer, Madou Traore, Abou Coulibaly, and Matthew Heberger
Dear friends and supporters, here are a few photos of the three new classrooms completed last month. Construction was completed just in time before the rainy season, when villagers are busy in the fields planting and tending crops, and when the mud makes construction activities difficult.
The new middle school in Kintieri is our 28th school-building project in Mali. The village of Kintieri has had a primary school since the 1980s which is supported by the community members. There has also been a middle school since 1993, with 3 classrooms built by the community. However, the old schoolrooms did not meet government standards for classroom size and was too small for the number of children passing to grade 7. To continue their education beyond grade 6, children had to move to M’Pessoba, at 30 kilometers from home; or Koutiala 75 km, or Bla at 40 km.
The old school office was shared by the two schools and the only latrine had to be shared with children and teachers. Today, the middle school has three new bright and airy classrooms to accommodate grades 7, 8, and 9, plus new office/storage rooms and latrines.
We are happy to report that Build a School in Africa is alive and well! We have carried on with raising money and building schools despite the pandemic and the recent political turmoil in Mali.
Thanks to keen readers who notified us that our Finance page was out of date. For a snapshot of our income and expenses, you can also look up our profile at Guidestar, an organization that tracks charities and reports on their finances and management. As an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff, nearly 100% of the contributions we receive goes toward building new schools.
Since 2005, we have built at least one new school every year in Mali, West Africa. In addition to our regular fundraising activities, we have received extraordinary support from individuals, schools, and small foundations and businesses. Consider making a donation today to support education in West Africa.
