Mali’s literacy project taught thousands of young people to read and write. Trump’s USAID cuts shut it all down

Mountougoula, Mali (AP)-for Amina Dumbia, 18-year-old, the “Shifin Ni Tagne” project was a way to dreams of her life. A phrase means “our future” in the main local language in the country, and it refers to a program over the years aimed at teaching about 20,000 young financial people to read and write their local languages.

With the support of $ 25 million in financing from the United States Agency for International Development, or the US International Development Agency, over five years, the project has now been closed after the Trump administration’s decision to reduce 90 % of the agency’s foreign aid.

“The joy I felt was replaced when I was chosen by this project,” Dumbia said in the capital of Mali, Bamako.

She hoped to take advantage of the enabling program for training as pastry chef.

“I have no hope to realize my dream (again).”

Poverty and illiteracy

Dumbia is among the thousands of people who now find themselves cut off in Mali, a country that has been destroyed due to high levels of poverty and insecurity and since 70 % of the population of at least 22 million people did not have the opportunity to learn to read and write, according to Sila Fateat Sisi, director of a government agency focusing on non -national education in the financial.

The reduction in the funding of the US Agency for International Development also came at a time when other development partners in Mali in Europe withdrew their support in the wake of the 2021 coup, which brought the leader of the current military council, Asseimi Goita, to power.

Enabling

For many, the literacy project was the only way to eradicate illiteracy and empowerment.

Once you move to reading and writing, the beneficiaries of the program move to the next stage, which involves acquiring professional skills such as hairdressing, carpentry, sewing, welding, and making pastries, according to Modipo Cisoko, who is the supervisor of reading and writing in the Mali Association to stay in the non -Provit coast participating in “Shifin Ni Tagne”.

Cisoko said that these skills allow economists to create job opportunities for themselves, earn a livelihood or support their families.

Local languages ​​against French

“With the teaching of the mother tongues, it can move quickly towards erasing collective illiteracy among the population,” said Issika Palo, a professor and researcher in the original languages ​​at Mali University at Bamako University.

On the other hand, only 30 % of the population has been taught in French, “which is the common language in the country.

It has made the participation of the American Agency for International Development in Mali, the main partner of the government’s development. Not only does the sudden party to help her to eradicate illiteracy, but also aims to increase adult education and expand the literacy project to public schools.

The Goso Dabu School in the capital of Mali, Bamako, is among the 1,000 schools that benefited from the education of the mother tongue thanks to funding from the United States Agency for International Development.

Teachers trained on the program last year continues to teach, but the surveillance and evaluation aspect of the program has been withdrawn.

Amadi Ba, a consultant at the educational animation center, who is responsible for the school in Bamako, said this funding was a “great shock to us.”

In a country where local language education depends only on financing from development partners in Mali without a few or non -governmental assistance from the government, concerns exceed its immediate impact on children’s education.

In 2023, the Mali Military Government decided to make the original languages ​​in the country the official languages ​​instead of French, which became the “language of work”. The official documents, including the constitution, the mining law and other texts, were translated into national languages.

“It is certain that the US Agency for International Development” will certainly have a negative impact on the development of the mother tongue education, especially since it came in the middle of the school year.

She added, “We had no time to think about a mechanism to rid the strike.”

Training improves agricultural business

While it continued, the program was useful for many in different ways.

Oumou Traoré, a mother of two children who grow onions and eggplant for a living, remembered how training improved from her agricultural work, especially in pricing her goods in the Mountougoula area in Bamako.

“Since I learned to calculate my onion weight and keep my soul in my mother tongue, I started selling onions myself.”

A turn towards Russia

The 2021 coup led the country to Russia as a major ally after cutting ties with the West, including the United States, which was at some point a prominent donor in Mali in foreign aid.

While some experts said that the withdrawal of American aid may open the door for their competitors like Russia, whose mercenaries accused them of human rights violations and killing outside the country, some say that the American Agency for International Development has left a very large hole so that others do not fill it.

“It will be difficult to find applicants for the projects left by the United States Agency for International Development,” said Fatimata Toure, a development specialist and director of the research, study and training group in Mali in Mali.

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com

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2025-05-21 15:55:00