EDUCATION IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON YOU CAN USE TO CHANGE THE WORLD. - NELSON MANDELA
WHO ARE WE?
Enactus Essex is a network of 80 members, running life changing projects locally and internationally in order to empower people and improve their livelihoods in a sustainable way. We achieve this by using entrepreneurial actions and strategies that we develop at the University of Essex.
My name is Korotoumou Kagnassy, but everybody calls me Touti. I am a 20 year old Malian and I am the leader of our new international project called IQRA. I started working on this project 4 months ago, with the help of my Vice leader Micheal Ogunlana and the other members of team IQRA, as well as receiving the support of all the other Enactus Essex members.
WHAT IS IQRA?
Going to school is taken for granted, but we need to not forget that not everyone has the chance to go to school, or the chance to get an education. This is the reason why we, Enactus Essex, decided to support this cause, because: when you educate a child, you educate the community.
IQRA is a meaningful project. We named it “IQRA” which means "read" in the arabic language, a language known for its diversity. This word is powerful because, not only does it mean “read”, the word also means study, learn, go over, think, and ponder. IQRA embodies the essence of the project and the vision built around it.
The project is an Educational Project based in Mali in West Africa and is built around two groups of people: children and teachers. The aim of IQRA is to help aspiring and actual teachers to improve their quality of teaching in the region of Koulikoro. Our goal in one sentence is: “Deliver children's potential by offering professional experience to aspiring teachers”
Our goal is to provide a training scheme in order to fill the knowledge gaps highlighted by our beneficiaries in order to deliver their full potential. We design the training scheme around their needs and what they have also acquired in terms of knowledge as teachers. We also aim to help underprivileged children in the same area who don’t have the chance to go to school or have had to drop out of school by helping them improve their literacy. One of the goals of the project is to contribute to the improvement of literacy in the country.
WHY IS IQRA NEEDED, WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Mali is known for its low literacy rate of 34% (recorded in 2013), placing the country at the 6th lowest literacy rate in the world. This is due to a number of factors, but IQRA tackles the question of the qualification of the teachers. The relationship between teaching quality and learning quality shows that the quality of teaching needs to be improved in order to have a better quality of learning.
Passion is the fuel that keeps us going and makes us want to thrive in the realisation of this project. Being a Malian myself the project is particularly close to my heart. I left Mali when I was 11 years old and I had the chance to live in different countries. During my first years of schooling, I attended a good Malian school. Unfortunately there are millions of children and teenagers just like us who did not have the chance we sometimes take for granted.
Each member of the team has made a personal expenditure for IQRA, unfortunately this is still not enough. If you could help us in any sort of way such as sharing this project or making a donation, there is so much more that can be done for this community.
WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?
We need £2000 to help us fund the cost of sending three members of our team to Mali, to keep close contact with the teachers and project partner, and buy some stationary before the end of the year. We want to go ourselves to pilot the programme and to be able to solidify the relationship we have already established with the project partner. Therefore the money will go towards funding our flights, accommodation and teaching materials:
Printing and Stationary for 2 classrooms: £100
Communication costs for the rest of the year: £240
Airplane ticket costs per person: £720
Find us here:
Twitter: @EnactusEssex
Facebook: Enactus Essex
Instagram: @Enactus_essex
HOW CAN YOU HELP? HELP US SUCCEED!
Although we need to raise as much as possible to make this work out brilliantly, money is not the only way to help us succeed. Please share this project with anyone who would be willing to support us and wants to find out more about IQRA; the more people who know about it, the more likely we are to make this happen. Each donation that you make will push this project closer and closer to success!
We have some great rewards listed on the right hand side of the page just for you! Thank you very much for your support and taking the time to learn more about us!
Thank you!
