Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS)

Adama Kouyate — From the Ground Up: Perspectives on Running a Grassroots Organization

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

12:00pm – 1:00pm

McKinney Conference Room, 111 Thayer Street 

In 2012, after Mali suffered both political crisis and severe food insecurity, Adama Kouyate visited his mother in his small home village of Karan and noticed a huge spike in the number of malnourished children. In Karan, community members had stopped agricultural production following the end of government support programs to focus on small scale gold mining in the area. This transition resulted in negative consequences on both social and economic state of the village, especially for the young children that were being pulled from schools to help their families in the gold mines. Witnessing this transition, Adama founded IFE-Mali with the goal of promoting children’s education and rights, and by extension that of their mothers, through innovative, simple and community-led initiatives. Please join him on October 29 from noon to 1PM at the McKinney Conference Room to learn more about his experiences founding and leading an NGO run entirely by volunteers and about the work that IFE-Mali is currently doing to impact the Malian community.

Adama Kouyate is the founder of IFE-Mali.