I traveled to the village of Dagabo, a few hours outside Bamako, with One Global Village (OGV) to document a community being built from the ground up. OGV was establishing a farming program, a hospital focused on maternal care for women who often become pregnant without access to medical resources, and a school system designed to educate villagers for generations to come. The school also provides daily meals, easing the burden on families who would otherwise struggle to feed their children on their own.

I also traveled with Ibrahim Kante, a Kansas City based soccer coach originally from Mali, who is building a youth soccer program in the community. His work addresses something that statistics often miss: the need for purpose and identity among young people in a region where children face constant pressure to leave their villages for the surrounding gold mines. Many are forced by militias into slave labor under extremely dangerous conditions. A soccer pitch is not a luxury in Dagabo. It’s a lifeline.

Mali showed me what comprehensive community investment looks like when it’s led by people who understand the culture from the inside. Healthcare, education, food security, and youth development, not as separate programs, but as a single interconnected commitment to a place and its people.