Korotoumou’s Journey Begins After A Child For All
A Child For All’s mission began with our founder, Kadiatou’s dream of empowering children in her country of Mali with proper nourishment, care, education, and shelter. We are incredibly proud to report that the first cohort of children is now reaching adulthood. Just as all children, each ACFA child has had their own journey since starting with A Child For All. One of the children, Koro, has now begun her life outside of A Child For All. We are excited to share her progress as she begins this next chapter, and will continue to do so as we ensure she is well-equipped for a lifetime of prosperity.
Koro’s Background
Koro was born in 2004 in Dialakorodji, a suburb of Bamako. Her father was a farmer who was an alcoholic. Her mother had mental health issues and often used to abandon her children. Koro had nine older brothers and sisters, none who ever attended school.
Koro and her younger brother Salé joined ACFA in 2012 when they were 8 and 7 years old. Koro began her first two years of school with very good marks, until we noticed a significant drop in her marks in third grade and the following years. Koro was diagnosed with a mental disorder, yet since she began treatment and, with ACFA’s unwavering support, she earned her Diplôme Etudes Fondamentale (DEF), the national exam required to attend high school, after three attempts. Koro opted not to continue with high school, but instead she started vocational training. Koro also thrived in sports including earning medals in tae kwan do.
Koro is a talented seamstress, and has put her skill for sewing to good use. She is currently in her third year of design and sewing school at the Centre Orientation Professionnelle de Coupe et Couture. While Koro still struggles to stay on track with school given her mental health struggles, she is determined, and ACFA is working hard to give her everything she needs to finish school.
What’s Next for Koro
Koro’s mother still suffers from mental health issues and is supported by Koro’s oldest sister, who runs small businesses to support her mother, her siblings still at home and her own three children. Koro requested to move back home with her family to help support them. ACFA is supportive of her doing so and worked to make the transition as seamless for her as possible. Therefore, since she is now further away from school, ACFA funds a driver to take her to and from school so she can continue her studies while she helps her family and also provides her with funds for meals. She aims to graduate this June.
Just like with any child, we will continue to support Koro as she settles into adulthood and self-sufficiency. This will include securing the funds to buy her a sewing machine and start-up funds to launch her sewing business once she graduates. We fully believe in Koro’s abilities, and will continue to report on her progress. We sincerely appreciate all the generosity over the years from ACFA supporters that has enabled Koro to get to where she is today. We continue to support her brother Sale who is in agropastoral school.
Koro will always be part of the ACFA family. ACFA is proud of what we have provided to Koro including shelter, food, education, healthcare and sports over the 12 years she was living at ACFA’s Bamako Children’s Home and the skills to become self-supporting and to help herfamily. What would her life had been if she had not come to ACFA?