New Translation Team Member

Earlier this year, we received word that one member of our 4-person translation team would be leaving to pursue other opportunities. Thanks, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, for all your hard work. We wish you nothing but success in your future endeavors!

Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the team, Yagare Magassa. We asked her to write a short introduction, which appears below.Yagare Magassa

My name is Yagare Magassa; go by Mamay (or Mamaï). I studied English in the Faculté des Lettres, Langues, Arts et Sciences Humaines (or FLASH) at the University of Bamako from 2002–2006. After university, I worked with Americans and Germans as a language facilitator and with Malians as a teacher, merchant, and actress. I like to travel, to study, to walk (for sport) and to speak foreign languages. I speak English, French, Soninke, and Bambara.

With the existing situation in Mali, things like the job market and other activities are completely stopped. So this translation project is a fantastic opportunity for me to not only keep my knowledge and acquire new specialized vocabulary, but most importantly to help other people in difficulty. Because this book will help teach members of the Bambara-speaking population to help themselves for may years to come, I’m so proud to be involved with this program.

Thank you for having a heart for Mali!

inheartMany many thanks to all of our supporters and volunteers for your generosity during our six-week Have a Heart for Mali fundraising campaign. When everything is tallied up (including checks), we think we will have raised about $4,500, bringing our total to over $13,000. While this is short of the ambitious goal we set on Valentine’s Day, we have been truly humbled and grateful for the outpouring of support. And of course, even though our six-week fundraising push is officially over, we still encourage people to give.

Even as the Have a Heart for Mali campaign was underway, our translators have been working away. Please check out our new translations, including our draft introduction, and our experiment with a side-by-side French-Bambara version.

Thanks again to our incredible and growing community for Having a Heart!