Our Malian staff works closely with Village Education Councils in each of our 12 elementary schools.  By partnering with Education Councils, villagers share accountability in the education of their community. These leaders play an integral role in promoting formal education opportunities, adult literacy, and self-reliance training.

Following the model of the Alliance’s Health Council program, village chiefs form Education Councils — a group of respected leaders who are organized to improve the literacy of their village. Our Mali staff facilitates planning sessions and the Education Councils envision what a literate village would like like. Then, they determine goals, set priorities and create a work strategy to make their goals a reality. Goals have included increasing girls’ enrollment, providing adult literacy opportunities, constructing classrooms and forming parenting committees.