Diakaridia: Hope for the Future
When Diakaridia Samake’s father died, he and his family were left with little hope for the future. His mother struggled to raise her young family, gripped by poverty in the village of Tienfala, Mali. So desperate was their situation that young Diakaridia had to go out to work in a bike mechanics. He was just eight years old.
In the hot sun, by the side of a busy road, Diakaridia would work day in, day out, fixing the ‘Jakarta’ motorbikes which are a popular form of cheap transport for the people of Mali. His job was to change spark plugs, exhausts, and tyres. For his labour, he would earn under 50 cents a day.
Staff from Muslim Hands’ nearby School of Excellence found Diakaridia working one day and asked him if he liked working at the mechanics. He told them he didn’t, he wanted to go to school, to learn and make a different future for himself.
Thanks to the support of our donors, the Muslim Hands staff were able to enroll him in school, where he receives the best education in the region, free meals, and healthcare. His life has been transformed, and Diakaridia is so much happier at school than he was before, he’s even made a good friend already, called Ba. He’s so committed that, at home, he’s made himself a blackboard to help him with his homework.
Diakaridia is now free to pursue the life he wants, at the moment he says he wants to become a policeman but, at the age of nine, who knows if he’ll end up in the police or discover a new career he loves. The fact is, he now has the freedom to choose what he does with his own life and the opportunity to learn and grow, to become a happy and prosperous young man.
Without your help, Diakaridia and many more children like him would have no choice. We believe education is the key to lifting people out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Without access to education, children like Diakaridia become trapped, working from a young age, never able to progress.
Transform the lives of orphans and donate towards our Orphan Fund. Our orphans get a first-class education, nutritious meals, regular health check-ups, and social care to ensure all their needs are met.
