Education and dedication helped found A Child for All, we hope your CFC donations can help keep it thriving.
Despite some recent developments, Mali is still one of the most dangerous places to be a child or infant. Significant political instability and lack of governmental programs to ensure the safety of its population amidst the unrest, leave many families and children homeless, hungry, and at risk of physical danger.
Our founder, Kadiatou, is a recently retired officer of the U.S. Navy. A daughter of a Malian father and American mother, she grew up in Bamako, the capital of Mali. It was first as a young adolescent when Kadiatou noticed the difference between how she was growing up and the very different reality of other children around her. Kadiatou was raised by her father, a teacher. When she saw other children on the street and not in school, she wondered why they were not in school.
As time went on, she learned this was of course not a choice. Half of children in Mali never reach their fifth birthday and many do not attend school.
Kadiatou took much away from growing up in Mali, including the four tenants for which A Child for All was founded: children need nutrition, safe shelter, education, and healthcare (both physical and mental) to thrive. She decided to make it her life's mission to give that to as many children in Mali as possible.
As a young adult Kadiatou moved to the U.S. and later joined the U.S. Navy. In 2008, she founded A Child for All as a 50(c)(3) non-profit after finishing her MBA in Nonprofit Management at George Washington University.
In 2010, her father donated his house in Bamako so Kadiatou could open a home for vulnerable children. Soon, A Child for All had 12 young vulnerable children in its care who would call ACFA and that 3-bedroom house, home. To this day, eleven children still live in that home, and Kadiatou’s dream of bringing children stability in nutrition, shelter, education, and healthcare is a flourishing reality. Kadiatou envisioned helping many more children and in 2020 that soon became a reality.
A Child for All now has two locations in Mali for vulnerable children, one with an entire (and expanding) complex in the village of Zorokoro, not far from Bamako. The Zorokoro Children’s Complex has vulnerable children ages 3-6 years old in its care and living in the dormitory at the Complex. Over 75 children from the surrounding villages attend the ACFA school that has been built at the Complex with all children receiving an education, food, and basic healthcare. Over the years, through the support of donors and partnerships fostered with other nonprofits, A Child for All’s older children have attended private school in Bamako with tutoring available as needed, played sports, including winning medals in fencing and taekwondo, attended high school and vocational schools, and participated in computer coding classes taught remotely by US high school students. The older girls even traveled to India for a leadership Summit for underprivileged girls. ACFA has awarded them many more experiences beyond what their lives would have been like if they had remained living on the street.
There are many more vulnerable children in Mali that need help. Aid from U.S. government grants and programs like CFC provide critical funding to help with ACFA’s four programs of education, nutrition, healthcare and shelter. We have received a Platinum seal rating from Candid (Guidestar) for our transparency in how donated funds are allocated and used in our organization. We are still a founder-led nonprofit, and we believe this is part of the reason we have been able to grow so steadily.
We hope you use your CFC impact to help us educate and support Mali’s future leaders to not only change their lives, but also the trajectory of the country for the better.
