Scaling the Women's Literacy, Leadership and Enterprise Program                                    

Building capacity for social change through advancing education and economic opportunity

After 4,000+ women have successfully learned to read and write, word continues to spread about The Tandana Foundation’s Literacy, Leadership, and Enterprise (LLE) program. More villages in rural Mali are requesting literacy   centers of their own, and in response Tandana is working to scale our proven LLE program to providing literacy training to all villages in the Tommonguiné (Tommo So-speaking) region.

"The Tandana Foundation has greatly strengthened our women's leadership skills, we know how to speak, and how to stand up in front of the group. Another NGO called us to Bandiagara...the trainer asked us to choose someone to be the day’s reporter. When I started writing, everyone in the room was looking at me. He asked me where I’d learned to write in Tommoso. I said it was The Tandana Foundation that taught us to express ourselves in our own language. In front of everyone, he congratulated me."                            — Aissata Kansaye, Village of Kani

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The Issue

• The literacy rate for women in the region of Tandana’s focus is ~20%, due to limited access to formal education

• The Gender Inequality Index ranks Mali 148 out of 152 countries

• Mali's GDP per capita is approximately $780

• Women in rural villages have limited access to formal education, local political decision-making, and take on onerous amounts of household chores -- perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality

Supporting Gender Equality in the Bandiagara Region

In 2011, Tandana supported women in the village of Kansongho in their dream of creating a cotton bank, which provided them with a revolving fund to manage their supply of cotton and  purchase it on fair credit terms. Women in Kansongho then shared they would like to learn literacy and numeracy skills, so that they could keep records for their businesses and manage independently in the marketplace. Tandana began the Tommo So literacy program there in 2012, and women in neighboring villages soon asked to participate. In 2018, we began offering leadership workshops to representatives of all previous literacy classes. Participants learned how to form and lead women’s associations. Tandana then invited them to submit business plans to a competition, and offered startup funding for each winning group. We continue to offer these greatly successful activities to each literacy cohort after completing classes.

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"Before, in Orsongo, when a woman wanted to call her husband or child who were far away, she was forced to use the telephone of her husband’s brother to make the call. Many brothers-in-law took advantage of their naivety. Sometimes, if the husband sent money for his wife, the brother would keep it. The wife alone does everything and works very hard to provide for the family. Today, thanks to The Tandana Foundation, a new life has begun for women. They can do whatever they need without consulting men; they can’t be manipulated like before."  — Saidou Témbine, Orsongo

The Change

After participating in this program, women have:

• Demanded inclusion in township meetings they were not formerly invited to and taken the floor to speak their mind

• Continued to sustain businesses, increasing incomes year by year

• Worked together to lead important social changes such as,
• Ending early marriage in an entire township
• Supporting girls in continuing their education

• United to change their relations to the market, such as refusing to be cheated and collecting produce to collectively sell

• Created group cotton and indigo banks to control material supply

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Tandana Seeks to Expand the LLE Program Through:

• Literacy training in Tommo So for 8,400 women

• Training 3,150 women in leadership and income generation

• Creation of 210 new women’s associations

• Funding for 105 women’s enterprises (Each with 40 women)

• Exchange visits for participants to learn from women leaders in high-level organizations, such as UN Women in Mali 

Join this effort:

The budget for scaling this program is $300,000 per year.

Your support will help us to stand alongside thousands more women in their quest to generate positive change in their families, villages, townships, and nation.

Growing the reach of this program results in creating space for a new social role for women as they advance their knowledge, confidence, and participation in decision-making processes.

Thank you for being part of this change.