ACFA Mentorship: Awa’s Story

This story is part 1 of 2 about a mentorship between one of our teenage girls, Awa, and a volunteer, Gina. First we’ll hear from Awa, so you can learn about her background and how she came to ACFA. The second part is Gina’s story nine months into their mentorship.

Here is Awa’s background, in her words, that she wrote when applying for the Kickoff Solutions UNIFY Youth Development event in India (you can read about that in our blog here).

My name is Awa, I’m from Dialakorodji, in the area of Kati, in the region of Koulikoro. My mother’s name is Fatoumata,  and my father, Soumaila, died when I was 3 years old, according to my mother. After this happened, my mother struggled to look after my sisters and me. She had a few different street trades and had to walk miles and miles every day to bring us food, clothing and to pay the rent. She wanted us to go to private school because the public school closest to our house was still very far. She also wanted to buy us children’s toys, but all of this meant spending money, and she didn’t have any. I didn’t suffer much from discrimination because everyone in our neighborhood had the same economic problems as us. Everyone was struggling every day to bring food to the family table. I didn’t have industrial toys but I used to play board games with my friends. 

When I was 5 years old, I was lucky to join ACFA  and I received help from all their programs: house, food, education and health care. From my first year with ACFA until today, I haven’t repeated any year at school, and I’ve always had good grades. I’ll do everything I can to continue like this until the end of my studies. When I started school, I was also taught basketball, in a team close to the ACFA home and I played with them in the under-16s basketball championship.

When you come from a poor family and you have the chance to receive some help, the goal is to be successful, to be able to show gratefulness to the people who’ve helped me. When I get older, I dream of being a great journalist and to fight for the cause of children in difficult situations around the world.

When Awa applied for the mentorship, she wrote Gina the following letter: 

Hi Gina,

My name is Awa and I am happy to meet you. I have been at ACFA since 2012 and since, my life has changed in a good way. I am 17 today, and I attend the 12th grade at the Kakou Moussa of Daoudabougou high school, and I am also registered to take the final national high school exam of Mali for the very first time. I am also attending a trade school in a professional center in Bamako where I learn cutting and sewing. Besides the books I use for my classes, I don’t read much. I have taken only one trip to go to India with my sisters from ACFA to take part in the Girls’ Leaders of Kickoff Solutions. India is an adorable country, much more adorable than shown in movies, and they have almost similar cultures to ours in Mali. Other countries that I would like to visit are America and Spain. During my free times, I visit my school mates (girls), and my family. My favorite subjects are French and Philosophy. My favorite food is potato salad. I like basketball and Malian music.