Mady Sissoko Foundation striving for more after reuniting Michigan State center with brother

East Lansing, Mich. – It was just five months ago when Jim Gray read about Michigan State center Mady Sissoko’s contributions to his hometown of Tangafoya, a village located 360 miles outside of the Malian capital of Bamako.

That summer, Sissoko had flown out to Tangafoya to officially open the Mady Sissoko Foundation School, the first of its kind in his village. With the help of his American guardian, Mike Clayton, Sissoko raised over $50,000 to build the school and a new well. Sissoko also donated his NIL earnings to the cause due to the NCAA’s stipulations that prevent international students from profiting off their likeness.

After hearing of Sissoko’s charitable acts, Gray, a Michigan State alum and avid Spartan basketball fan, immediately thought of ways he could further support Sissoko, who was entering his fourth season as a member of Tom Izzo’s program in East Lansing. 

“I’m thinking, ‘Hey, if this kid can do this, that’s inspiring,’” Gray said. “He deserves support. He deserves a pat on the back, number one, because if I was his age and I had some NIL money, it wouldn’t have gone into a school and a well. I’d get a car and that sort of thing. So it was really compelling to me, after I read about that, to help him.

“It just seemed like a guy who has that much good in his soul needs to be supported. He needed to be shown, at least I felt, that what he is doing is definitely worthy of other human beings’ support, especially Michigan State fans.”

Eventually, Gray came up with the idea of bringing a member of Sissoko’s family to Michigan so that they could watch him play. Gray quickly contacted the Michigan State basketball office with his thoughts.

“I never thought I’d ever hear back, but I was driving from Jackson one day and my phone rings, and it’s Andrew Henk from the basketball office,” Gray said. “‘Hey, Jim, we got your email. We think it’s great that you’d like to bring somebody over from his family. Why don’t we work on it?’”

Sissoko, Gray and Henk soon met at the Breslin Center. During the meeting, Sissoko revealed that none of his family members had seen him play in-person before. Due to his parents’ poor health, Sissoko chose his brother, Souleymane, as the family member he wanted to have travel to Michigan. 

Souleymane, a member of the Malian armed forces, was among the first people Clayton met during his charitable trip to the west African country in 2015. Souleymane convinced Clayton to meet with Sissoko when he wasn’t busy providing free cataract surgeries for those living in the area. 

That meeting, initiated by Souleymane, led Sissoko on his eight-year basketball journey from Tangafoya, to Utah and eventually to East Lansing.

Gray and Clayton quickly spearheaded an online fundraiser to support Souleymane’s trip. His travels required roughly $5,000, but after a few weeks of spreading awareness, Gray received positive news from Michigan State deputy athletic director Jennifer Smith.

Smith told Gray in early January that the athletic department would be willing to pay for Souleymane’s travels. Two months later, Souleymane was en route to Michigan. 

Sissoko was asked to describe his emotions after practice on Monday, knowing that, in just a few hours, he’d be reunited with his brother for just the second time in three years. Sissoko struggled to find the words.

“I’m just excited to see him,” Sissoko said, beaming ear-to-ear. “I don’t want to be too excited because sometimes when you get too excited things can go wrong, but I’m just going to keep my cool until he gets here. Hopefully I can show him around what I go through every day and hopefully he can see that and he can experience a little bit of what I’m doing here.”

Sissoko said that he plans to show Souleymane around Michigan State’s campus during his week-long stay in East Lansing. On Wednesday, Souleymane will attend Michigan State’s senior day game against Northwestern, which could be Sissoko’s final game at the Breslin Center.

“That will mean everything to me,” Sissoko said. “He will be the first person in my family to watch me play live, and it’s senior night, so that’s going to mean the world to me. I’m excited. I can’t wait to see him in a couple hours when he’s going to be here. He’s in the airport right now. I’m excited and I think he’s excited, too. It’ll be a different experience for me to have a member of my family see me play for the first time ever.”

The plan is for Souleymane to stay a week in East Lansing before flying out to New York for the weekend with a friend of the Mady Sissoko Foundation. Souleymane will then return to East Lansing before heading to Minneapolis for the Big Ten Tournament. Then it’s onto Provo, Utah, to meet with Clayton for a bit before heading back to Mali. 

Not long into Souleymane’s journey in America, Gray met up with the Sissoko brothers to give them the keys to Souleymane’s condominium in East Lansing, which was provided by supporters of the fundraiser.

During the visit, Gray asked Mady, “Back when you, Andrew and I first talked about bringing your brother over, how much of a chance did you give it?”

“Five percent,” Sissoko responded with a laugh.

Taking the next step

Gray and Clayton overcame those odds when Souleymane landed in Michigan on Monday. Now, they are looking to do something even bigger. 

Gray, Clayton and their team are in the process of raising $200,000 for Sissoko’s village. The fundraising team didn’t want to stop at $5,000, given the $50,000 bar that Sissoko set with his initial fundraiser. So they asked Sissoko what his village could use. 

Together, the group came up with a list of needs for the village: four teachers and an administrator, a hut for them to live in, solar panels to help provide electricity to the village, a playground at the school, books, laptops and other school supplies, an electric grain grinder and a 40-foot shipping container.

The school already serves close to 200 kids, according to Sissoko, but adding those necessities would help the school’s services expand even further.

Sissoko receives updates on the kids almost daily. He enjoys seeing them take advantage of the essentials that he didn’t have access to while growing up in Tangafoya. Sissoko used to walk an hour each way to school, but now, the kids in his village only have to walk five minutes. 

“There’s a smile on my face (when I see those kids),” Sissoko said. “Just seeing them wake up and go to a school that’s five minutes away makes me happy.”

The people in Sissoko’s village recently received a tractor as well. Previously, the Tangafoyan people had to farm completely by hand, in temperatures that could exceed 100 degrees. 

Sissoko described it as his “mission” to continue to provide for his home village. Despite all that he has accomplished so far, Sissoko is excited to see what he and his team can do next.

“People have been so good to me here with helping the kids over here,” Sissoko said. “I may be the reason they’re helping, but they’re also doing it for the kids, and I’ll never forget about that.”

Looking for ways to grow

As of Tuesday night, Gray and company have raised $25,741 of their $200,000 goal. Gray has yet to put a deadline on their fundraising efforts because he feels like there are still some stones left to turn over.

Gray and Clayton have worked to gain a level of credibility throughout the process, which would make it easier to access people like former Michigan State athletes and university staff members. Despite the occasional roadblocks they’ve encountered thus far, Gray is hopeful that Souleymane’s story will help raise awareness for their cause. 

In the meantime, Gray and his team have advocated for the fundraiser in any way they can. 

“It’s about educating people, letting them know what youre all about, letting them kind of touch and feel so that they feel comfortable with it and letting them know that great things can be done if we put our minds to it,” Gray said. 

Gray noted that his team, as it stands, is a bit understaffed. That has made it difficult to take advantage of certain opportunities, especially when Gray, Clayton and Sissoko are all based in different parts of the country.

“It takes some real manpower to organize that and keep it all straight,” Gray said. “To keep all the plates spinning can be a difficult job. So we face that issue, too. We’re going to have to, sooner or later, have a more centralized organization to be able to take care of all these opportunities that may arise.”

“Any help is greatly appreciated,” Gray continued. “Maybe we can get a little better in terms of people who can help lend a hand and do stuff, and if I can make a believer out of a former athlete that has some friends that could reach out and contact people, that would be huge.”

With the right help, Gray has faith that the fundraiser can grow exponentially.

“It doesn’t take a lot of thought to understand what a great story this is and how we as Michigan State people should be stepping up to the plate,” Gray said. “It doesn’t have to be with thousands of dollars. Five dollars, $10, $20, $30, there are enough alumni out there that we can do this painlessly, update people on the schools, tell stories of the kids who are receiving the benefits. All of that is within range.”

Gray, Clayton and their team realized step one of their goal when Souleymane arrived in Michigan this week. The next step is to reach even further.

“We have to do the heavy lifting,” Gray said. “We’ve proven that there may be some cred behind what we’re trying to do, and now we have to help those kids.”

(For more information on donating to the Mady Sissoko Foundation online fundraiser, follow the link).