In Mali, 12 year old Modjère and 14 year old Sekou have returned to school thanks to the efforts of their teacher, Fousseyni Traore. The young boy and the young girl had left the village of Soron (Sikasso region, 195km from Bamako) several months ago because of the closure of schools due to a teachers’ strike and then the COVID-19 crisis. Modjère and Sekou had gone to live with family members in Bamako, where Modjère helped with household chores. They did not return to their classroom when schools gradually reopened in September.

Fousseyni Traore: “In July this year, I attended a training organized by the SNEC teachers’ union on the steps that teachers can take when pupils drop out of school. This training helped me to get in touch with the parents of these two children. We were able to find common ground between all the family members so that Modjère and Sekou could return to Soron. Both of them are now back in our school”.

The SNEC training that played a key role in this story was organised in the commune of Faragouaran and is part of the “Work: No Child’s Business” programme, jointly implemented by SNEC, ENDA, Save the Children and UNICEF.  As a result of the training school clubs, community fora and government workers work together with teachers and school principals to eradicate child labour in Faragouaran, where the school attendance rate of 5-12 year-olds stands at only 42%.