The rainy season wreaked havoc in rural communities in Mali. The downpours caused floods that closed schools for an additional month, pushing the school year to start in November instead of October. November 4 could not come soon enough, and students are finally in school ready to learn! With such good news, the Abako team and teachers went to work immediately and distributed school supplies to all students to support parents still recovering from losing crops. Community elders and parents witnessed the distribution of supplies and were grateful for such a kind gesture. Now, students are ready to begin an exciting year that will engage them in reading in their new library.
Abako is piloting a new literacy project for bilingual Mayan-Spanish mothers and infants in Yucatan, Mexico. Abako believes literacy and reading begin at home; therefore, mothers play a crucial role in their children's language and literacy development. Abako Foundation partnered with five Early Childhood Development Centers in Indigenous Communities (Centros de Educación Inicial Indígena, CEIIs, in Spanish) to assist parents in creating bilingual materials to begin teaching language to their children at home. This project involves five teachers, 144 mothers, and 136 infants who will receive materials and pedagogical support from Mayan-speaking teachers and two research assistants to work with specific language items to introduce children to sounds and words.
The project aims to teach mothers how to read to their babies with materials they created and that are part of their context. The long-term goal is for children to start recognizing letters, sounds, and words before they enter preschool. Soon, there will be reading corners in each center, and mothers will begin creating their materials with the supplies provided by Abako. We are excited about this project and will provide updates during the 2024-25 school year.
To kick off the new school year in Mexico and to support the reading program in middle schools, Abako invited teachers to a reading challenge. This challenge was called “A Blind Date with a Book.” The Abako team selected and bought books in different genres, wrapped them up, drew and wrote hints about the book on the cover, and invited teachers to pick a book that spoke to them blindly. Each title was different. The catch: to read it in a month and give a report to Abako. We are happy to report that all completed their reading successfully. For the next round, teachers were presented with a list of titles to vote on. The winner: “The Sugar Master,” and we will all read the same book this time.
Abako’s goal is to promote reading among students but to achieve this, teachers must also have a great love for books.
The Day of the Dead is one of the most iconic Mexican traditions. This festivity is a way of remembering and honoring dead loved ones. It is believed that during November, the deceased's spirits return to visit their families; therefore, people set up altars in their homes to welcome them. The altars feature photographs of deceased family members, some of their favorite food, and other trinkets dear to them. Some altars are pretty elaborate, while others are simple, but both honor the memory of a loved one and a gracious welcome for a day.
Students in all Abako middle schools set up altars to celebrate this tradition. In one school, students read horror and mystery books. In another, students participated in a cultural festival that featured traditional dances. Everyone is working hard to keep these traditions alive.
Abako also held a teacher training session to start the school year in Mexico. The Abako teachers took this opportunity to share their latest experiences applying new reading strategies. As always, the Abako team prepared exciting games and activities to show the teachers, and everyone learned new ways of working with students and reading poems! This time was not only used to study, and the teachers had a great time while playing and interacting with each other. They do not see each other often, so activities like this foster a sense of community and even friendship between the teachers!
Mali's literacy and library program could only be fully implemented with a library. Our pilot school site allowed Abako to partner with the community to construct a new library room. Parents and students made three thousand adobe bricks for the room, and Abako supplied the rest of the materials to make a school library a reality. The library construction started in early summer, and it took a month before it was finished enough for students to have their first sessions there before the school year ended in July.
A school library was one of the teachers' and students' dreams, and it is the first school library in the little community of Koutiala. Carefully curated books were supplied, and just recently, the teachers painted a mural, and bookshelves were installed to display books.
As the new school year begins, library traffic will soon increase as teachers and students bring stories to life and book activities start!
The Calaveritas are short and funny poems people make up, pocking fun at living friends, teachers, and family that are traditionally shared during the Day of the Dead festivities. To motivate the students to create such “calaveritas”, Abako invited all middle school students in our reading program to our Calaveritas contest in Yucatan. Students were excited about the contest, and everyone did their best to write clever, rhythmic, and funny poems about their teachers. There were many submissions, and winners were selected in two rounds: first, each school selected three winners, and winners from all schools were sent to Abako. Our judges, former Abako students, selected the overall winners. Their calaveritas are featured here for your delight. We will soon publish all entries to honor students’ creativity. Stay tuned for more.
Nothing is better for teachers than starting a new school year with renewed motivation and pedagogical strategies for students. The Abako team in Mali conducted a three-day capacity-building workshop for teachers. The entire teaching staff attended the training session to learn about energizers, pre-reading activities for each grade, strategies for after-reading discussions, and the pre-assessment tool for lower primary grades. The training challenged teachers to work individually, in pairs, and as a group to model activities they will implement with their students during the school year. Rain storms did not hamper their commitment, although the roads to reach the school were flooded. Teachers and trainers had a productive time, enjoyed meals together, and discussed upcoming school events.
