YOuth Cultural center ( Bamako, Mali W. Africa)

why it's important:

Mali is an overall French speaking country situated in West Africa, with a population of 12,324,029 or more. It is considered to be a third world country, however, we hope and intend to change that. This is only possible when we can unite and work together. We need your help so this dream can become a reality.

We moved to Bamako, Mali at the beginning of 2006 and lived there for two and a half years. Five months later, in the month of September, our parents founded a learning institute. We kept very busy maintaining the school that we lived in and coordinating different events. The school has actually been very successful, not saying that it made us rich, because it did not, but just for the fact that we were able to educate many children who could not afford an education and even those who could afford it. It is a success because my parents did not open a learning institute with the intentions of getting rich, but they opened a school with the intentions of educating people, so, in that case, it’s a success.

We saw how our school made a positive impact on our community. It shocked us to see how a lot of the youth in Bamako, Mali did not have many extracurricular activities; their daily schedule is basically to go to school, come home, eats, play football, sit outside with friends and sometimes go to restaurants and nightclubs on weekends. We were also surprised to see that almost no teenagers or young adults had summer jobs or anything of that sort. There are no YMCA’s, no parks, no community centers in almost all neighborhoods in Mali and if there are, they are built for the upper class population in Mali and are entirely unaffordable for the majority of people in Bamako, Mali.

This project will be beneficial to the development of the neighborhoods of Mali and the people, by bringing youth together to better their own country, it will provide activities and educational opportunities that will keep the youth busy and off the streets. The community center will provide employment opportunities and an exciting place to socialize and it will also inspire them to accomplish their goals and realize that we as the next generation can accomplish anything that we put on our minds to.

the plan of action:

There are a lot of objectives that we must complete before reaching our goal:

* We must obtain enough funds that will suffice the budget of this project.

* We must search for land or a building suitable for the community center.

* We must buy (not rent) the land or building so that we will be able to remodel it as planned.

* We must then purchase things that will be needed once the building has been remodeled.

* We must then train a trustworthy staff to maintain and upkeep the center once everything is in place and functioning.

So far, we have not completed any of these objectives, however, we already have connections in Mali, and a lot of people will volunteer to help in any way that they can. We also already have the location and an idea of where to purchase; we are depending on one thing and that is your help. With that, we can make this happen.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES

We plan for the Community Youth Center to have the following rooms:

* A reception area
* An exercise/gym room
* A library
* A game room
* A party/club room
* A photo room
* An auditorium

These rooms will be located in doors. On the outside premises, there will be:

* A swimming pool area
* A basketball court
* A football/soccer field
* A park

We plan to have the Cultural Youth Center open by summer/fall of 2010, depending on our funds and support. The youth will be exposed and taught different sports (known and unknown in Mali) such as soccer, football, baseball, basketball, swimming and dance classes. There will be a fully equipped exercise/gym room. The game room will be fully loaded and accessible to everyone with a membership.

how you can get involved:

We ask for your support towards Africa’s development. We will appreciate any donation of any kind.

We are future leaders striving to make our world a better place. Let’s all work together.

Thank you.