Dance teacher plans to help kids in native country after NC lottery win. ‘My dream’

For Souleymane Sana, helping kids is what makes him happy.

The North Carolina man who is originally from Mali, a country in West Africa, plans to use the money from a recent lottery win to help children in his native country.

“I’m going to keep doing my best to help build more classrooms for the children in Mali,” he told the North Carolina Education Lottery, according to a May 19 news release from the agency. “That is the thing that makes me really happy.”

Sana, 39, who lives in New Bern, won $100,000 from a scratch ticket, the release says. He has a nonprofit dedicated to providing aid to people in Mali, and he hopes to use some of his winnings to build classrooms there.

Sana is also a dance instructor, and he said wants to build a dance center there as well so he can share his love of the art with Malian children.

“I love to dance and I want to teach the children in Mali to love it too,” he said, according to the release. “If you talk about culture and you talk about education, they both go together.”

Sana took home $71,259 after tax witholdings.

“My dream is just becoming true little by little and I hope it will keep going,” he said.

New Bern is about 120 miles southeast of Raleigh.

This story was originally published May 19, 2023 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Dance teacher plans to help kids in native country after NC lottery win. ‘My dream’."