Hello friends,
I want to introduce you to Djeneba Sissoko. She is in the eighth grade at Grace School. Eight years ago I was visiting the Sissoko family and found that the atmosphere was not very good. The sick mother had just lost her sight and the dad was retiring from the local urban planner’s office. Young Djeneba was crying because her older sister Djadji was dressed up to go to her third grade class at the public school, leaving her sister at home. Her insistent cry was above any attempt of her parents to try to calm her down. During all the time I visited with her parents she continued to cry. Two times in two weeks, I witnessed the same scenario and I realized that she was persistent. That year Grace School had a first grade for the first time. Even though she was too young, I asked Mr Sissoko if he could bring Djeneba to our school so that she can learn something before she is fully able to study. And after a month Djeneba was able to read the letters taught in the class. She took all the tests and at the end made it to second grade. From then she never repeated a class. Now she is doing well and is proudly in eighth grade. Last August, her dad came to me with big concern about Djadji, saying "Djeneba has became her bigger sister's teacher at home.” I had assumed Djadji was at the high school already but no. She was still in 8th grade. Mr Sissoko expressed his desire to send Djadji to Grace with her sister but they could not pay the parents' portion of the costs. Because of all the support we get we were able to offer Djadji a place at Grace school as well. Now both sisters are tuition free in the same grade at Grace school and Djadji is doing much better at school. There are many students like Djeneba and Djadji in our school by the grace of God through your support. Thank you very much for allowing the less fortunate to get the opportunity to get a good education. Together we are bringing hope to families. God bless you, Ibrahima Happy Easter to you all Friends,
We hope you are doing well and that you are having a great Easter celebration. This Easter my cousin Souleymane is going to slaughter a goat, an add-on to the beef we bought from our church so you are highly invited to come and celebrate with us!!! Grace High School will begin being built next month and we hope to finish the first level of laboratory block before 5th of September 2019. The reason we choose this is that it can be used as regular class and office. We will have 2 classrooms, one office, one room to keep staff, and two rest rooms. It is the easiest way to start it. During the school year we can build the regular class rooms and later the administration building. We applied and paid for city electricity but we are still waiting for it to run the water pump for making the bricks. If they keep delaying the delivery of electricity we will be using a generator even though it will cost us more. We have enough sand on the site to start the work. I want to introduce to you one of our teachers, Mr. Pascal Togo. Pascal is the English teacher at Grace School. He teaches English from 3rd grade to 9th grade. Pascal is a graduate in English teaching from the University of Languages of Bamako. Since 2014 Mr. Togo has been a key teacher in Grace School. I practice my English with him, we are very good friends. Pascal is a fervent Catholic believer. His wife Niangaly Guindo is a very nice person, a prayer warrior and an evangelical Christian. They have one beautiful daughter named Marie Jeanne. They live one block away from us. On top of what we do together at the school, we have a positive influence in our neighborhood and I am lucky to meet and live by people like Pascal. The public schools are facing a difficulty of validation because of many strikes while the private schools are continuing their classes. The unrest in the area has moved many into Koro. Then many people are coming to ask to enroll their kids in Grace school next year. We are sad to not have space for them. The pressure they make on us is driving us to think of having two 1st grade classes next year and adding every year. This year we want to organize a student day to celebrate students and teachers and to have fun the whole day. In Mali Easter is not as famous as Christmas. Especially this year the atmosphere is not at all festive because of the war we are surrounded with. Again it is better to view war on the screen of TV or in a movie theater but it is a nightmare to smell it in real life. I can't describe the pain, the social burden and moral stress that come with it. The tenuous lives of the survivors are just an inch away from the dead victims of the war. Many of those who run into the town from the violence, have lost everything they had and are not likely to get it back easily because they can no longer farm their lands and raise their animals as they used to. Thank you for praying for the war to stop and Mali to rest. Thank you! God bless! Your friend Ibrahima Kodio and family Easter greetings from Koro,
Hello friends, We are grateful to survive all the unrest in our locality. This month Koro was on the news almost every day. The situation forced the prime minister and many of his ministers to visit Koro to lessen the boiling atmosphere. At the same time all the Evangelical Pastors of the area of Mopti planned a prayer meeting in Koro because of the situation. Many other actions like prayers in communities, mass demonstration, and many more characterized this month. We sometimes thought we were reaching a final social disaster in Koro: The army had started burning motorbikes of those who would not respect the driving restrictions. Jihadists are imposing Sharia Law in some areas of Koro. Robbers are stripping people of their animals and goods. Kids have been slaughtered on their way to school. Many villages have been burned as a result of inter-ethnic conflict. People are uprising against the county mayor office of Koro, which the population judged to be indifferent to this chaotic situation. The list is long and horrible!!! All this in the news, on the radio and on TV drove many friends to call to make sure we are Ok. I received call from friends who had not called me for ages. It was a catch up with many of them. I know I have friends and they care about our safety. Even though sometimes we are silent we stay connected as friends. Thank you for your prayers and care. It is definitively a mark of love. As I was reading in a favorite blog of Peace Christian Church lately, this difficult situation in Koro made me tougher, like when you boil eggs they become harder. The girls at school have hairdressings like the Fulani’s to show compassion. Some Fulani’s have been confused with the jihadist ones and killed while they are innocent. There is continuous movement of the population from the villages to towns like Koro, Bandiagara, and Bankass. The population takes the conflict with them where ever they go. I learned that last night they was a shooting in Bandiagara, with one death and four injured. No one knows the true source of the people who attacked the motel in Bandiagara. Population movement may bring diseases as well. We thank God for the vaccination of Grace students. For now only one student was declared to have some weird black nodules on his skin and the nurse believes it is due to measles, which used to kill many kids here. Because of the vaccination it can’t develop in his body. Please praise God for that. There is an ongoing vaccination of all the kids against measles and other diseases. We are grateful to have a nurse at school. Abel the school nurse got married on the 24th of March to a nice lady named Louise POUDIOUGO. She is a nurse as well. They celebrated the wedding in the village by the parents. It was a joyful event. Please thank God for the wedding and pray for divine guidance for their future as a family. Please pray that I and all those in my house, and school would not ebb away the cross which is ours as followers of Christ. Pray that we withstand our Christian faith no matter what it costs. In the middle of this unrest I receive a call from the local director of domain and land. He congratulated us for the first newspaper appearance for the public notification of one hectare being granted to us by the government for the upcoming Grace high school. I knew very little about the length and complexity of the procedure to get permanent access of land from the government. But we have done the hardest part of it. The news was announced at the court and the mayor office for larger public display. In two months there will be another and last publication in the official news. Please pray that everything goes well and fast. We wish you a very happy Easter!! May the victory of Christ over the power of death produce in you the power and ability to rise up from any difficulties and boundaries that may hold you down! We pray for that in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your partnership which is making this education ministry possible. God bless you Ibrahima Greetings from Koro,
February was short but full of many ups and downs. This February was characterized by the prohibition of riding motorbikes and pickups in many areas in Mali including Koro. Thank you for your prayers that I know for sure has changed much of it. The restriction was unbearable until they did some exceptions for the towns. The corrected version goes like: It is forbidden to drive motorbikes and pickups in the town before 6 AM and after 6 PM, but permanently outside the town. Anyone who needs exception has to get a written authorization from the army otherwise will be treated as military target. We assisted many who were fleeing to the city of Koro while the jihadists were slaughtering dozens of civilians, burning mayor’s offices, and closing schools about 40 Km from Koro. We witnessed Fulanies and Dogons from those places running into Koro from the civil war. The dominant luggage of most of them is bundles of long grass straw to provide shade wherever they go as they can not afford housing. I used to see all this on TV or in newspapers but now I am seeing it live and daily. This month the civil war has increased and ethnic group killing has reached a very bloody level. None can really say how many were killed. It is just absurd that the army is imposing such a hard measure and dispositions over peaceful citizens while those who kill and close schools remain unperturbed. All the NGOs are confined to the corners of their offices and most of their personnel have to walk or ride bike to work. It slowed down things to idling level. We are determined to keep up with the education till we can't do it anymore. For safety our only hope remains the Lord Jesus Christ. Please keep up praying for us. At Grace School our program is not affected because we teach only in daytime, in fact our courses are being intensified as many of our new students need extra teaching to catch up. We are thankful to God for sending us Mathieu Togo, one of my former students in high school. Mathieu is very devoted and loving, I call him "Le charismatique" (the Charismatic). Indeed when he was a student in the public high school he was leading the local Student Bible study group in Koro. He is now in charge of accelerated teaching of reading and Math to the challenged students. A few days ago a student from the high school died from a truck accident while he was entering his school. The student union decided that the whole country will observe four days to display their upset about the frequent construction trucks passing by the front doors of schools and victims among the students. They want the government to deviate construction trucks away from school sites when school is on. It is a wise and feasible demand but at Grace we decided to observe just one day sympathizing to the families with lost kids on the school road. We are grateful for the understanding of the local Student Union. Please thank God for the group of three Geometers (governmental mandated agents of domain and land) who came to place a physical border for the proposed land for Grace's high school in process of definitive concession from the government. Please continue to pray as the process is still long and things are slowed down with the current situation in term of security for local administration. We thank you for your support of the education of the most vulnerable kids in the world. God bless you, Ibrahima Greetings from Koro,
The year 2017 has passed and 2018 is quickly consuming before I came to you with an overview of our activities. Together during 2017 we were able to:
This building has been our advocate to convince the government to proceed to a definitive concession of about one hectare from the school domain area. On top of this relatively gigantesque building and good progress toward the accession of a hectare of land for the high school, we were able to:
We praise the Lord for the empowering and safe trip of Dr Brandon POMEROY to Koro in early January this year. It was a great timing. This first week of February was a bit harder and difficult with the death of our 9th grade student Issa GUINDO. Issa was one our most polite and hard working student. He arrived at Grace in October and was so caring for all and loved by all the students and teachers. After one month he was sick, a recidivate case of mental disease before passing away. It was a great shock to all of us. We visited his parents who live about 30mn from Koro, with a large number of students and teachers. It was a very sad event. This first came up again with the Official Restriction from the CEMG (Chef d’Etat Major Général des Armées ) to not drive any kind of motorbike or truck in Koro because of security issues. It is clearly said that the soldiers will treat anyone disobeying these restrictions as a military target. I personally don’t think those extreme measures are a solution to our security problem, but we have to obey the restrictions. We have the best solution- Education -with love to all, without discrimination. On the other hand, the hard situation makes our dream bigger and more clear-cut. Giving us the vision of extension in three ways- Higher, larger, and multiple growth is possible if you accompany us in this ministry. We say big thanks to you for all what you have done to support this ministry we are involved in. Thank you, God bless you, renew you during this Year 2018. Your friend Ibrahima. |
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