Jul 14, 2008
Posted by Caitlin Cohen
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 governmental and community actors
are working on non-integrated, over-lapping
waste management projects of various qualities
and commitment levels. Further, the
government promised Sikoroni a truck some time
ago for use in waste collection which has not
yet arrived. The rewarding – Sikoroni
already has a number of waste management
organizations in place as well as a number of
locally based, youth civic service
organizations, involved in both community
activism and service. In addition,
the government has already begun the removal of
trash from the site of the future clinic,
scheduled to break ground in October of 2008!
The support to combine efforts and collaborate
for public trash cleanup days and share
information about supply costs has been
overwhelmingly positive.
So
what happens next? Next week we have
arranged a meeting at the Community Center for
all of the trash actors to continue sharing
ideas in an open forum and planning for three
Journées de Salubrité (public clean-up days) in
August. The youth organizations have
pledged supplies like shovels and manual labor,
as well as support in advertising the
initiative to other community members. At
this meeting, we also hope to discuss ways to
make door-to-door waste collection services
more affordable, accessible and financially
sustainable to Sikoroni families to prevent the
public dumping of trash in the future.
A combination of invested
community members, supportive local government,
cleaning up the current trash eyesore and
investing in the prevention of public dumping
are key components to establishing Sikoroni
Jeya. And we're off to a great
start!
Be sure to check back in
for updates!
Cheers from sunny
Sikoroni,
Caroline
Mailloux
MHOP Sanitation Coordinator
