In Mopti, Mali, a group of local chiefs and community leaders sit together in the shade of a large tree, deep in discussion.

They are all men except for one.

The woman’s name is Aminata. Dressed in vibrant pink and brilliant blue, she holds the group’s attention as she speaks about the importance of children – especially girls and children with disabilities – attending school.

Aminata is the president of a collective of seven camps for internally displaced persons who form a community-based organization (CBO). Organized and led by residents, CBOs work to address issues that impact their community. With support from Right To Play, Aminata’s organization is working to address barriers to education among host and internally displaced children in Mopti.

Conflict in Mali that has forced nearly 400,000 people from their home has kept children outside classroom doors. Schools close or become too dangerous to travel to. And factors such as poverty, forced marriage, and child labour, which become more prevalent in times of crisis, can create barriers to their return.

More than 1,700 schools have shuttered nationwide due to threats from armed groups, a lack of infrastructure and supplies, and resource shortages, including teachers who must also abandon their classrooms in search of safety. These disruptions contribute to stark education statistics, including the fact that more than 2.3 million children in Mali are out of school, and more than 50% of youth are illiterate.

Affected by the ongoing violence, in 2019, Aminata fled her home village too. She and her family faced a shortage of food, clothing, and housing, as well as health issues. And she knew she wasn’t alone.

“It was all of these difficulties that motivated me to create an organization to help [the community], especially children,” says Aminata.

Empowering the Community to Advocate for Education

After arriving in Mopti, Aminata started her CBO to ensure that internally displaced children can access quality education. Members of the organization's combined experience and expertise are invaluable to the mission of improving life for young internally displaced persons, which makes the group a powerful partner for Right To Play’s EMPOWER project. Funded by the Canadian government through Global Affairs Canada, EMPOWER was launched to improve literacy and life skills for conflict-affected children – especially girls and children with disabilities – aged six to 12 in Mali’s Mopti and Gao regions.

Through EMPOWER, Right To Play supports CBOs headed by internally displaced persons and women to lead the project locally. It facilitates training on topics such as women’s leadership, administrative procedures, participatory approaches to assessing community needs, and play-based learning methods to help strengthen the CBOs in their work and enhance their impact.

This opportunity for capacity sharing is critical because Aminata and her colleagues are the people on the ground advocating to community leaders for internally displaced and host-community children’s right to quality, play-based and gender-responsive education. They understand local challenges and anticipate opportunities; they bring critical, often underrepresented, perspectives to decision-making processes; they are present and empowered to hold stakeholders accountable to their commitments; and they take ownership of the project’s outcomes to create lasting change.

To date, Aminata and her team have registered 258 children in need of birth certificates and issued 100 of the critical documents. Many children in Mali, including the internally displaced, do not have access to original birth certificates due to relocation and loss. Without this documentation, many children are barred from attending school.

In total, through the efforts of the organization, 273 children will re-enroll in the upcoming school year.

And thanks to collaboration with Right To Play, when students get to class, they’re engaged in quality play-based learning led by trained teachers and school administrators. The impact of play is also felt outside the classroom, where trained volunteer coaches have engaged hundreds of children, parents, and community members in participatory sessions that raise awareness about the importance of sending children to school, particularly girls.

A Role Model to Girls, Advocating for Their Education

Aminata says the most significant obstacle she faces in her work is getting parents to understand the importance of girls’ education.

Fewer than 74% of girls in Mali are enrolled in primary basic education (versus 86% of boys), and that number drops to 15% in secondary school.

“Each day, I go to the school to monitor if students are present,” she says. If a child is absent, Aminata asks the neighbourhood chief for information or visits the child’s family to find out why they’re not in class.

“Often it’s the girls who are absent, so I make parents aware of the importance of girls’ education by explaining that an educated girl can become the leader of a large organization and contribute to the peace and prosperity of an entire community.”

Gender inequality isn’t limited to schools. It’s endemic in Mali, which has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. The country ranks 188th out of 193 countries on the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index. In Mopti, women’s and girls’ rights are restricted by a strongly patriarchal culture, and girls are subject to oppressive gender norms that contribute to harmful practices like forced marriage, gender-based violence, and female genital mutilation.

As a respected leader in her community, Aminata challenges many of the negative stigmas women and girls face in Mopti and nationwide.

“[Before], it was rare to see a woman leading an organization made up of local chiefs, site managers, and traditional community leaders … Thanks to the Right To Play training, the men have understood the value of women and the importance of working with us.”

The impact isn’t only at the leadership level. Aminata recognizes the importance of being a role model to girls in the community.

“Sometimes [the girls] are impressed to see me talking to the men as a leader,” she says – men like those community chiefs and local leaders who she sits with in the shade, advocating for change.

CBOs in Mopti are at the forefront of improving education for internally displaced children. With leaders like Aminata on their side and the power of play, young Malians are learning the skills they will need to build better futures for themselves and a safer, more stable future for their country.

The EMPOWER project is made possible with the support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada.