Man uses lottery winnings to support schools in his native country

Souleymane Sana recently won $100,000 playing a scratch-off game by the North Carolina lottery. The New Bern, North Carolina, resident said he is going to use the winnings to support schools in his native country of Mali.

“I’m going to keep doing my best to help build more classrooms for the children in Mali,” he said in a press release. “That is the thing that makes me really happy.”

Sana is the director of Kono Gnaga, an organization that says it provides assistance for several impoverished schools. In addition to helping to rehabilitate several classrooms, it also provides dance classes with local artists.

“I love to dance and I want to teach the children in Mali to love it, too,” he said. “If you talk about culture and you talk about education, they both go together. Some of the money is going to be used to start building a dance center there.”

He said providing assistance for schools back home was what motivated him to buy a lottery ticket.