Give a Home to 100 Vulnerable Toddlers in Mali

The slow pace due to the uncertainty of COVID did not stop us from making progress on ACFA’s many goals and 2022 is now off to a good start, building on our success! 

Our two kindergarten classes at the Zorokoro Children’s Complex are doing well with the ACFA children and 26 children from the surrounding villages learning everything from letters and numbers to being introduced to gardening. Learning about the importance of good nutrition and how to harvest food are important life skills. The children are improving every day, being cared for by our dedicated staff. 

Now is a truly exciting moment at the Zorokoro Children's Complex as we start to plan to receive the donation of 20,000 books from Books for Africa for our library (already shipped an on the way!) and are planning computer training on the new laptops – all thanks to USAID/ASHA’s grant. This will be monumental for the children's education, and we cannot wait to use the computers as tools for learning.

We also decided to host summer school for 6 weeks for all the kindergarten students, so they continue to learn as they prepare for the next school year.

The older children continue to thrive.  Diakassan, Billy and Sale competed at the fencing Open of Mali and Diakassan won the bronze medal.   Having ranked number 1 in a pre-selection competition, Kadiatou is selected to play with the Mali national taekwondo team.  Our four Kickoff Solution Solutions scholarship recipients continue to be mentored by the wonderful founders of Kickoff Solutions, as well as continue in their favorite sports activities.

The older children also completed their algebra class which was being taught by a California high school student volunteer.  The children in elementary school (9th grade DEF candidates) in Badalabougou did well on the first semester exams all having at least average grade.

Thank you to the U.S. Marine Corps based at the US Embassy Mali for their generous donation through their #ToysforTots program! The Marines came to ACFA to give the children their gifts personally and the children were so excited! 

ACFA was able to raise funds to purchase a motorcycle for use at the Children’s Complex.  In addition, Seydou Traore, a long time ACFA supporter, funded the purchase of a motorcycle for ACFA to facilitate Togola’s increased presence at Zorokoro, which is about 45 minutes from Bamako where Togola oversees the wellbeing of the older children living in the house where our founder grew up.

We are looking to build out our personnel infrastructure in Mali and the U.S. to support the ACFA programs, which we are excited to see continue to grow.

Please consider donating to ACFA today to help us continue to build on our success and support the vulnerable children of Mali.

Thank you for your generous and continued support of ACFA.