2022 Completed Projects
Matthew McConaughey helped bring supplies to displaced families
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: Matthew McConaughey
Project Description/Impact:
A generous $200,000 donation from Matthew McConaughey, allowed us to donate monthly, from July 2022 to February 2023. A 50kg bag of rice, 50kg of millet, 5 litres of oil and 5kg of sugar to 100 different families in the communities of Socoura, Begnemato and commune of Mopti, where many displaced families are living having fled the violence in the region. Total impact for the year was 1200 families each with about 8-10 members.
First preschool built in city of Bamako
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: JP Peace Love and Happiness Foundation, Mayors Office of Commune V
Project Description/Impact:
In Mali, it is estimated that only 4°/of children have access to any form of early learning. Empower Mali partnered with the JP Peace Love and Happiness Foundation and the Mayors Office of Commune V in the capital city of Bamako to build our first preschool. Children would originally have to travel to the neighboring community of Torokorobougou costing families time and travel money. The preschool has three classrooms that will give children aged 3-5 years an opportunity to get an early start on education. It also has been enclosed to provide a safe and secure environment and has its own canteen so children and teachers can eat at the school. This preschool will help the children of the community build a strong foundation in social, pre-academic, and general life skills that will give them a leg up in school and beyond.
Completion of a 9 classroom school
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: JPs Peace Love and Happiness Foundation
Project Description/Impact:
A generous donation from JPs Peace Love and Happiness Foundation allowed us to continue construction on a 9 classroom school in the city of Ouelessebougou. When completed, it will provide quality education for children from 1st grade to 9th and help alleviate the overcrowding in this fast growing community.
A new three classroom middle school was constructed
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: Katie Pearce
Project Description/Impact:
We completed construction of the Vickie Rae & Juanita May Academy of Kankrougou. Empower Mali partnered with our board member Katie Pearce who sold enough cookies through her Giving Cookie venture to build a fully equipped three classroom middle school with directors office and 6 toilets in the village of Kankrougou, a rural village located about 10km from the big city of Koutiala in the Southern region of Sikasso. The new school will bring great relief to the children. of Kankrougou.
Kankrougou’s current school is a tiny one room, dilapidated building. It doesn’t accommodate all of the children so most students have to walk to neighboring villages 5-10 miles away.
Pogosso was able to get a new three classroom school
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: Coates Family at the B.H Roberts Foundation
Project Description/Impact:
We completed construction of the BH Roberts Academy of Pogosso. Empower Mali partnered with the Coates Family at the B.H Roberts Foundation to build a fully equipped three classroom middle school with a directors office and 6 toilets in the village of Pogosso. A very rural village located about 45km from the big city of Koutiala in the Southern region of Sikasso.
The village chief was extremely grateful for this wonderful addition to the village that will help grow the literacy of the community, especially among girls. Many of their children had dropped out due to the distance they had to travel through wild areas to the school in a neighboring village.
A middle school was completed in Sibiribougou
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: Building Youth Around the World
Project Description/Impact:
We completed construction of the BYAW Academy in Sibiribougou. Empower Mali partnered with the Building Youth Around the World to build a fully equipped three classroom middle school with a directors office and 6 toilets in Sibiribougou. Sibiribougou is located in the heart if Commune 4 of Bamako and is quite underdeveloped in terms of infrastructure in education, clean water and electricity.
The school was in a constant battle to accommodate the high number of middle school students. On average each class held between 60-80 students. Some were so overcrowded that the administration had to arrange for the students to come at different times. The three 7th-9th grade classrooms will meet the need for more classrooms to alleviate the severe overcrowding.
School and teacher housing built for Zekoun
Date Completed: 2022
Partners: The Coates Family
Project Description/Impact:
We had an official inauguration of our middle school, the William Carr Academy and the teacher housing of Zekoun! The school and teacher housing was generously donated by the Coates family and will serve the community of 1400 families. Zekoun is an impoverished community not far from the Ivory Coast border that lacks access to basic amenities due to its distance.
The representative of the Minister of Education Gerard Dackouo, the education authority of Misseni, Bourama Samake and several authorities (administrative, school, traditional, religious, etc.) and local opinion leaders were also present at this grand ceremony which was also covered by the media.
The school is made up of three (3) equipped classrooms, six (6) latrines, and a directors office with a storehouse. The teacher housing is a collection of three (3} homes each having two rooms and a living room.