Kaaba Soumaré is my courageous African sister. Kaaba is the reason the school we formed in Bamako, Mali, is successful.  She works full-time as the CEO of PIYELI, a microfinance institition as well as volunteer Director of the school in Bamako. Without Kaaba, the school would not exist.

In this week’s update from Mali, Kaaba wrote:

“Les nouvelles de Hèrè qui ne sont pas très bonnes.
Fatoumata Sangaré et Mamou Diarra sont enceintes, donc elles ont été renvoyées.
Astan Traoré est décédée suite à une maladie.”

Translation:

“The news from Hèrè jè (the training center) is not very good. Fatoumata Sangaré and Mamou Diarra are pregnant and thus expelled from the center.  Astan Traoré died after an illness (malaria)“

I am heart sick.  Every part of my being is ANGRY.  If I scream loudly enough will the world hear? If I jump off this roof will our collective will work harder to eradicate poverty?

A child who lost her parents at 2 and hungers for love at 15, thinks the young man paying attention will fill the emptiness in her soul. Rape is part of daily life. For the uneducated, birth control causes  sterilization so the elders tell young women not to accept it. There is no clean water, so the young woman washes in still standing pools surrounded by mosquitos. And she dies.

I am thinking of staying on this roof forever.

Can you see my fist in the air?!