Giving hope to millions of youth around the globe
Giving hope to millions of youth around the globe
Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa and one of the five least developed countries in the world. More than 90 percent of Mali’s population lives in the more fertile southern region of the country. Nearly 75 percent of the population depends on agriculture, but the lack of rain often limits their crops. The country also has a drought every 10 to 15 years.
According to the World Bank, poverty in Mali is pervasive. Food sufficiency is dependent on the harshness and unpredictability of the climate, which is compounded by seasonal variations in the weather which tend to be particularly acute during the pre-harvest period. While Mali experienced an overall drop in national poverty from 55.6 percent in 2001 to 43.6 percent in 2010, regional differences persist and in 2013, the poverty rate rebounded to 45 percent. Mali ranks 182 out of 189 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index for 2018.
Salesian missionaries have recently built the St. John Bosco secondary school in Touba, a small town which had no other secondary educational institutions. The school was completed with the assistance of the Spanish Salesian organization, Solidaridad Don Bosco, which aims to give youth at risk of social exclusion access to quality education.
Salesian missionaries began construction of the St. John Bosco secondary school because the area offered no educational institutes for older students. The new high school now serves more than 400 youth from 17 villages in the region. Together with the construction of the new school, a gender awareness development plan is in place to facilitate girls’ access to education and to foster and welcome their participation in the activities of the local oratory.
In addition, the Spanish Salesian Solidaridad Don Bosco developed a project to expand the Salesian educational center in Sikasso. The project will span 12 months, relies on the support of the Spanish municipalities of Utrera and Pozoblanco, and will benefit youth in situations of exclusion served by the center.
The Salesian center in Sikasso currently has a student body of 430 students learning in 11 classrooms. The space is clearly insufficient with respect to the needs of the center. In order to improve the service offered by the center and the quality of education, the new project helped to build a new building that accommodates eight additional classrooms which are fully equipped. The project is also assisting with the recruitment of the necessary teachers.
From Mali
From Mali
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