Hundreds flocked to Brown University on Friday night to hear Malian musician Vieux Farka Toure in support of MHOP. Vieux and his band played to an energetic crowd eliciting song, laughter, and lots of dancing. What's more, they helped to raise $2,000 for Sikoroni's new clinic,  which will begin construction in late November!

Vieux and MHOP share a passionate aim to relieve malaria in Mali. Vieux has always worked to eradicate this disease in his home country, with 10% of his album sales benefitting this cause. Malaria is also a top concern in Sikoroni. Many of MHOP's projects address it; for example net distribution and impregnation, health education, and a new clinic to serve malaria patients. Vieux's performance was a success in all dimensions; it brought in not only much-needed clinic funding, but also drew attention to MHOP and its work among Brown students and the greater Providence community.

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I just attended the Network: Towards Unity for Health conference in Bogota, Colombia. There are 340 participants from 45 different countries, all of whom are trying to tackle primary health care and health education.  Discussions include brain-drain, medical school educations, and how to promote pro-poor healthcare policies. I was invited to present a workshop entitled “Using Health to Build Power” about using community organizing strategies for health. The diversity of participants was incredible… I learned about medical education in Mozambique and at Harvard, anti Gender-based violence campaigns in Egypt, and clinical outreach in Nepal.  It was a pleasure to share our model and see how it is applicable to projects around the world. One of the most amazing parts of the experience was the site-visit.  I spent a day at each of two healthcare programs in slum communities south of Bogota.  The slums here are nothing like in Mali: one of them, Ciudad Bolivar, has ...continue reading

Julie Siwicki and I visited the home of Brown University President Ruth Simmons’ today to meet the President of Liberia, Her Excellency Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.  It is quite a thing to be introduced to your biggest heroes by another idol! (And they actually look a little like each other, as well). After threats to her life, two long stays in exile, and being charged with treason, President Sirleaf became the first elected female head-of-state in Africa.  On top of that, she is now in charge of rebuilding a nation after 14 years of civil war.  And the rest of us think our jobs are hard! President Sirleaf won the vote in 2005 in Liberia by mobilizing female supporters and quadrupling the number of women registered to vote. She is an inspiration to us all, a testament to the unbelievable power of an iron will.   Julie and I are extremely honored to have had this opportunity. I am flipping through photos now of our women leaders in Mali, trying to guess which of ...continue reading

I'm back home in MA after spending the summer in Bamako and still trying to adjust to the intense differences between Sikoroni and the states.  Hot running water and preserving produce in a refrigerator are welcome luxuries, albeit still somewhat perplexing knowing how expensive and even downright impossible such taken-for-granted amenities are in Bamako's slums.  Since my last blog update in July, the waste management program, specifically, has made exciting progress.  The CHAG completed a survey of nearly 100 households in Sikoroni's six districts about interest in and barriers to waste-management service subscription.  Now that I’m back stateside, reliable electricity and technological access will allow me to tabulate and analyze these results, which I will summarize, email to Niang in Mali to ensure that it is discussed in detail with the CHAG as plans progress to expand the program.  Such administrative work is much easier stateside due to the laws of ...continue reading

Radio Sigida Joli (Building communities, beautiful communities) Imagine no newspapers. Imagine your daily TV broadcasts are all in German.  You’ve never used the internet, have no email account, and cannot afford phone credit.  One of the biggest challenges to grassroots action in Mali is simply communication!  This summer MHOP has started research for a program to bring the voices of slum neighborhood residents into the public arena by radio!  With funding from the Huntington Public Service Award this project will help people discuss the problems in their communities, innovative local solutions, and concrete steps for getting involved. Adama Kouyate, a student at the University of Bamako, is the principle Malian intern on this project.  He has started a series of 10 focus groups in slum neighborhoods of Bamako to figure out what stations people are listening to, what stories they want to tell, and the solutions they have to share with each other.  So ...continue reading

After a brick laying community ceremony on November 25th, construction of a health center for 60,000 underserved slum residents will begin!  The clinic is scheduled to be completed by June 2009, so Ben and I have spent the last few weeks revising a list of the medial supplies needed to equip the clinic.  We met with Dr. Magdalene Togo, the ex-chief of medicine of the national hospital, at the Ministry of Health to better understand what clinic equipment we could expect to be “prise en charge” (provided by the government) and what will need to be provided by MHOP. The health ministry is located in the presidential compound on top of an imposing hill overlooking all of Bamako.  After spending all summer in the shadow of the president’s hill, we finally got to approach the center of Malian bureaucracy.   Caitlin, Niang, Ben and I took a cab up the winding road past series of murals of past Malian presidents.  But halfway up the hill, our taxi would go no ...continue reading

    Yesterday, Cari and I ventured across the Niger River to the other half of Bamako. The occasion: La Journée Panafricaine des Femmes. Not knowing what to expect, we were surprised and delighted to enter a large auditorium filled with women all wearing clothes of the same fabric!!! It was designed specifically for the occasion – the date and the seal of the Panafrican Women's Organization appeared on the fabric design.     The day is an annual convention-of-sorts where women and men come from across the country (and all of West Africa??) to mingle, eat, and address pertinent issues. This year the theme was "Impacts of Globalization on Poverty in Africa", with a focus on the role of women. Participants spoke, performed skits, danced, and sang on a stage in front of the wonderfully-matching audience.     I loved seeing these women taking such an active role to find poverty alleviation solutions. It fits nicely with the mission behind Musow ...continue reading

I sit in the courtyard drafting this blog amidst a large group of energetic women  in a circle under the shade of the mango trees diligently chopping large piles of onions and garlic.  In the corner, a local Sikoronian, Ami, paints traditional Malian geometric designs of henna on Caitlin's feet and hands.  The festive air is contagiously exciting.  Better yet, it poured throughout the night leaving today's air cool.  With all the bustling, the break from the heat is appreciated as tomorrow, MHOP's Malian director will marry!  On behalf of the MHOP staff, congratulations, Niang!   The week has brought other exciting updates as well.  Specifically, our waste management program, Sikoroni Jeya, has made terrific progress.   We have spent about a month gathering information from various local and governmental actors, which has proven to be both extremely frustrating and extremely rewarding.   The frustrating -  a number of ...continue reading

Today was a glorious day. Glorious is really one of the only ways to describe it. It was a Saturday and the day was largely filled with fun, as Saturdays should be. I woke up early to help Niang set up our mosquito net impregnation station  in one of the communities we work with. "Impregnation" is chemical treatment to kill mosquitoes, and it is responsible for about half of the preventative effect of a mosquito net. This was a great way to follow our recent survey, which found that mosquito impregnation and use was a huge problem.  While overall, project participants seem to be doing what they can do stay healthy, many individuals are still not sleeping under mosquito nets. When asked why, a lot of them said that they are only free for pregnant women and children, so they don't want to spend the money or don't think it's worthwhile for other family members to use them. However, that having been said, a large number of individuals still DO use mosquito nets but don't know ...continue reading

I think it's worth recording the many different kinds of interactions I have with people here. One big category: communicating with the host fam. I'm staying in a compound that houses about 35 people. Though I haven't yet figured out the exact relations between them all, I'm pretty certain that they're all related somehow. Only a very small percentage of them speak French – the dad (one of them) and two teenage girls. Everyone else speaks strictly Bambara. I'm taking a course in Bambara 3 days/week, but my skills aren't quite where they need to be for easy conversation. I talk to the two girls a lot. Their names are Aisha and Kadya. They explain a lot and teach me words in Bambara. Very helpful. My interactions with the women of the household are a little different. Both parties are acutely aware of the language barrier, but I feel like there's a mutual desire to "bond" or what have you. We exchange a lot of smiles, greetings, and handshakes. Sometimes they say something complicated ...continue reading

Aw ni sogomo!  Awn be Mali la.  (Good morning from Mali!)  We've been in Bamako for about a week now, and all of the volunteers have moved into Sikoroni. The first morning of our arrival we all received Malian names from one of the chatty market vendors.  I was pretty exhausted from the flight and didn't realize that our names would become such an important part of my summer here.  Since then, we've introduced ourselves at each store or house we've visited with our Bambara names.  Our first names are never enough, and we are always pressed to go around and say our last names, after which everyone laughs hysterically, telling us the stereotypes and stories of the rivalries between the different families.  Julie is constantly teased because she is a Kulibali- everyone laughs that her family is known for eating beans.  I'm a Haïdra, from a religious family, so the joke is that I must know the Koran really well.   Cari is a Kouyaté, a ...continue reading

A note from our director, Modibo Niang: Chaque trois mois toutes les ONGs et Associations de Developpement de Sikoroni se reunissent pour discuter des problemes et essayer ensemble de trouver des solutions ou propositions de resolutions. Ses propositions seront presentees a l'autorite competente pour une bonne execution. Sigida Keneyali a participe dans le CCLDS depuis le debut. On etait heureux de parler de nos programmes avec la communaute le 30 decembre. On a bien discute le centre de sante à Sourakabougouni, et comment faire demarrer la collecte des fonds pour que le centre soit realise le plus tot possible. Tout le monde a apprecie la bonne nouvelle.

We take for granted how much words matter | being able to write down a name next to a phone number, your grocery shopping lists, emails to friends, street signs... When you have spent most of your life as a student (as I have) words become the domain of library stacks and theory.  But words are a pragmatic necessity. Literacy is key to health, to keeping records, to getting directions, to taking notes, to running businesses, and to political empowerment.    I am delighted to say that the women's program has started its most ambitious initiative.  I had the distinct pleasure of sitting in on their first session of a new program last Monday.  Mme Aisata Touré, a trainer with the CAFO, the local women's group, stood in front of 36 women in her big pink chalk-stained boubou.  Half of these women are widows or single mothers.  She explained the letters of the bambara alphabet , with little anecdotes to explain each one's shape.  Us catch water, ...continue reading

Mali Health Organizing Project is pleased to present our new site, thanks to the hard work and kind donations of Orchid Suites Inc, Michael Stein, Nicole Veilleux, and Caroline Mailloux! 

Welcome to the Mali Health Organizing Project Blog! This blog will be updated by our onsite volunteers and Malian director.  Check back for reports and ruminations from the field.