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Editor's note: To see KSL's full documentary on Mali, visit ksl.com/Africa.SALT LAKE CITY — In Salt Lake's newest library — a brand new, modern public building in the Marmalade district — you'll find a man who grew up in Mali, West Africa: a place more different than many of us could even imagine.
"At night sometimes we'll be so hungry that we couldn't sleep," said Yeah Samake. "My mother will come and tie my stomach with a handkerchief so that it will shrink a little bit, I don't feel the pain of hunger."
Such was the life of Samake, whose father sent all of his children to school instead of having them work on the farm to provide food for the family.
"Only education will help us break the cycle of poverty," said Samake.
That led him to a teaching job where he met a couple from Colorado. They sponsored him to come to America, where he got a degree at BYU.
Instead of staying in America, Samake went home. In Mali, he was elected mayor of his hometown. His reasoning is something his friend James Arrington says is inspirational.
"He could have complete comfort here in America," Arrington said. "He's very skilled, he's very gifted. He could hold a very good job, but he is drawn by something that burns within him to lift his people in the way that he's been lifted."
"America does not need me," said Samake. "I may need America, but America does not need me. My village needs me. My country needs me."
He brought electricity and running water to his hometown — even a solar energy farm. Now, serving as Mali's ambassador to India, Samake has his sights set on helping others in the same way he was helped: through education.
With a group called "Empower Mali," Samake and Arrington are on a mission to build as many schools as possible.
In a country crippled by poverty, to say the government's schools are lacking would be an understatement.
"There are so many children, you can count something like 150 students in a classroom," Samake said.
No books. No power. Bathrooms without plumbing. Schools are scarce, and some children walk miles to get there.
"Several kids were run over by trucks," Samake said.
Slowly but surely, Empower Mali is increasing the number of schools, shortening that walk.
They're also providing books and countless other improvements over the government's schools, but they don't give these schools away. Each village is required to put up 20 percent of the cost of a school before Empower Mali will commit to planning one. Samake said that's to ensure that a village truly wants a school and will take care of it.
"We want to help them help themselves," he said. "If we were to build in any village that asks for a school, we could build in a village where there is no need. But if they have to put hard-earned money into it, it validates that there is a need in that village."
The remaining 80 percent comes from donations, which is what brought Samake on a trip to Utah, helping to spread the word about his organization.
In Salt Lake City's newest library, you'll find a man dedicated to giving children the same opportunities he's had. Visiting one of the richest countries in the world, Samake is looking for help in giving a hand up to those in one of the poorest.
"My hope is that we can make a thousand Yeahs," Arrington said. "Because if one Yeah can make this much difference in a forgotten pocket of the world, then a thousand of them can change the whole world."
To help Samake and Arrington build schools in Mali, visit Empower Mali.
