The Kologo Primary School was completed on February 4, 2012!
The new school and its students
Kologo Community Profile
The old school
Kologo was founded many years ago by Simbo Traore, who belonged to the Bambara ethnic group, but today the Fulani ethnic group dominates this village. There are 1,740 people living in Kologo in 92 family groups. Kologo is 27 km from the buildOn office in Bougouni and 187 km from the capital, Bamako. The residents of Kologo are primarily farmers. They grow millet, beans, peanuts, rice, cotton and vegetables. Some families also keep livestock and grow other crops in small gardens for their own consumption. The construction of this school will be happening during the harvesting period, which is dry and hot . Most people in Kologo practice Islam. The leaders of the community are the major, the chief and his council, the youth representative, the village secretary, the women’s representative, the parent association head, the school committee head and the nurse. There is a small health center in Kologo.
The name of this school is Morifing Sangare. Kologo’s first permanent school block was built with the support of buildOn in 2009. In addition to those 3 classrooms, students are also studying in 3 temporary classrooms built by the community in 2001. There are 6 teachers teaching grades 1 through 6, and 220 students enrolled (114 girls and 106 boys). Overall enrollment has increased by 13% since the construction of the first block in 2009, and the percentage of girls enrolled has increased from 38% to 52%.
The School's Teachers
The Kologo Primary School Project
The new school block
The Kologo school project broke ground on December 8th, 2011 and was completed on February 4th, 2012. This is Kologo's second school block. The people of Kologo contributed a total of 2,498 volunteer workdays to the project, finishing 19 days ahead of schedule. Before starting construction they also collected local materials for the project and met with buildOn staff to sign a covenant outlining the following responsibilities:
Community Contribution
• Unskilled labor: 30 workers (15 women and 15 men) per day, six days per week
• Commitment to educating girls and boys equally
• The land on which the school is built
• High quality local materials: sand, gravel, water & rocks
• Volunteer management committee made up of 12 villagers (six women, six men)
• Lodging for buildOn Field Coordinator and skilled laborers in local homes
• Basic construction tools (shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, buckets, etc.) when available
buildOn Contribution
• Engineering and architecture
• Construction materials (excluding local materials) for school and latrine
• Skilled labor and plans needed to build the school
• Project management (buildOn coordinators)
• Instruction in basic construction techniques
Community Contribution
• Unskilled labor: 30 workers (15 women and 15 men) per day, six days per week
• Commitment to educating girls and boys equally
• The land on which the school is built
• High quality local materials: sand, gravel, water & rocks
• Volunteer management committee made up of 12 villagers (six women, six men)
• Lodging for buildOn Field Coordinator and skilled laborers in local homes
• Basic construction tools (shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, buckets, etc.) when available
buildOn Contribution
• Engineering and architecture
• Construction materials (excluding local materials) for school and latrine
• Skilled labor and plans needed to build the school
• Project management (buildOn coordinators)
• Instruction in basic construction techniques
For me, education opens opportunities. It opens eyes, brings knowledge, light, understanding between people. It means development.
- Yaya Toure, teacher, age 46
As you know, this is not our first time with buildOn. So, we’ve just performed what we learnt during the first project. Everything was easy for us. We haven’t met with any problems to organize the unskilled labor and the project management. I’d like to say thank you to buildOn and to our donors for their invaluable help. The whole community is very happy and wishes long life to buildOn and to these nice people who are helping buildOn make the dreams of the poorest a reality.
-Bourama Soumaoro, parent and farmer and member of the school committee, age 45
This school has already had an impact on the community. All the school age kids are coming to school. As teachers, our job is easier and more enjoyable. Parents are more involved and motivated for their kids’ education because buildOn, after building the school, looks after the recruiting rate. Girls are sent to school as well as boys because the community wants to meet buildOn’s expectations. The village is more beautiful because of these new classrooms. Thank you to buildOn and to the donors for the invaluable commitment! God bless all of you and your families! Amen!
- Mamadou Diarra, school headmaster, age 42