Aug 4, 2008
Posted by Caitlin Cohen
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
Jigi,
MHOP's microfinance center: to provide
Sikoroni's women with the
resources to bring
themselves and their families out of
poverty.
These resources
are not simply in the form of micro-loans.
This
summer I've been trying to integrate
non-financial components into
Musow Jigi's
services. For example, we want to start
offering
entrepreneurship courses to teach
women basic economics and
business
intuition. On Wednesday I met with
a group of three Sikoronians to
discuss
prospects for this – Niang (MHOP's Malian
director), Aisata
Touré (teacher of
MHOP/CAFO's women's literacy courses), and Ami
Keita
(member of the CHAG and micro-loan
recipient). They gave me crucial
insights
and great ideas about what would make the
course work, and
expressed interest in
taking it themselves!
Now, my plan of action is to track down
appropriate materials and put
them together
into a first-draft lesson book. Then I'll take
it to the
group for revisions, and soon
thereafter we'll be ready for a brand
new
Musow Jigi entrepreneurship course for women in
Sikoroni! Get
excited, because I sure
am.
