A once in a lifetime opportunity - ACFA girls take a trip to India!
Five ACFA girls - Awa, Kadidiatou, Astan, Koro and Diakassan traveled with our founder, Kadiatou, to India from October 7-12, 2022 for UNIFY, an event for youth development! This opportunity was made possible by Kickoff Solutions, a nonprofit created to enable underprivileged girls to foster leadership skills through sports. Four ACFA girls applied for scholarships to enroll in Kickoff Solutions’ program a couple years ago, and all four were accepted which made them eligible to attend the conference. The Kickoff Solutions team invited Koro to also attend the program as well, even though she was not an original scholarship recipient. Kickoff Solutions offers education, mentorship, and unique opportunities to foster each scholarship winner’s growth, and our girls were the only scholarship winners outside of India.
To make this trip possible many people donated their support, including pro bono legal counsel to assist with getting visas for each child, and more - but as you can imagine, the trip was very costly. We are calling on the ACFA community for anyone willing to help cover the cost of the girls’ flights and other travel costs. Read on to hear more about this one in a lifetime experience for the girls, starting with it being their first time on a plane and outside of Mali! Donate now.
Traveling to India - October 7th
The girls and Kadiatou headed out of Bamako, Mali en route to Bhubaneswar, India! Getting visas for the four girls was difficult even with Kadiatou traveling with them. Luckily, we were fortunate enough to have a board member with connections at a law firm in India, who provided their services pro bono. This trip would not have been possible without their support, thank you LawQuest! We are also thankful to the Honorable Anjani Kumar, the Indian Ambassador to Mali, who helped get the girls and our founder, Kady, get their visas to go on the trip.
Day 1 October 8th
After traveling nearly 1,400 km the girls and Kadiatou arrived in India! The program included over 50 girls, with 8 languages spoken. Even though most girls were from India, our girls were praised for overcoming the language barriers and being engaged participants throughout the entire program. As soon as they arrived, they started socializing with the other scholarship winners!
Day 2 October 9th
The girls get acclimated to being abroad, and continue having a great time meeting and bonding with other girls from around India.
Day 3 October 10th
It takes a lot of courage to leave your home country and put yourself out there for a full week and meet new people. Our girls were incredible, even performing in the social/performance night!
Day 4 October 11th
Our founder, Kadiatou, got up and shared advice and inspirational stories with the girls about her journey and how to capitalize on their potential. Later in the day, the girls all traveled to see the Women’s World Cup live(!) which was taking place in India during their trip.
October 12th - Departure Day!
The girls were each gifted a Chromebook by Kickoff Solutions to continue learning and keep the connections they made with each other alive. The girls have been writing with the friends and connections they made in India ever since returning to Mali!
This experience would have never been possible without the generosity of Kickoff Solutions. Please help us raise the rest of the funds for the trip, by following this link to our donation page: https://achildforall.org/donate
If you have been abroad in your life, you know what incredible value it brings engaging and learning about other cultures and interacting with people who have different backgrounds from yours. We hope that ACFA’s focus on leadership, education, and health brings more opportunities for the girls to go abroad in their lives.
