The Road to the Horizon: Mali

Showing posts with label Mali. Show all posts

An update from the African dust tracks

Mali village chief

We did not have too much connectivity during this trip, so could not post regular updates. I will catch up during next week.

During this trip, we interviewed 17 farmers and people who assisted farmers to adapt to climate changes.
After over 2,000 km, half of it off road, I am writing this from Ouagadougou while we are waiting for the flight back to Europe.

Next week we will start editing the videos.

I still wanted to share some pictures from this trip.

Mali nomad with his cattle

A nomad in Mali with his cattle

Cattle keeper in Ghana

Yousif in Ghana spoke about the difficulties to find grazing grounds for his cattle

Jumuo and his fruit trees in Ghana

Jumuo in Ghana described the way the shortened rains had insects attack his fruit trees up to the level they would no longer bear any fruits.

Naakpi and his vegetable garden in Ghana

Naakpi and his vegetable garden in Ghana

While Naakpi stood in front of his large green vegetable field, he told us how most of it would be lost, as the rains had stopped, and the water level was too low to continue irrigating the crop.

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Song of the day: Je pense a toi - I am thinking of you...

Amadou & Mariam are a musical duo from Mali, who met at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind.

The duo's early recordings in the 80s and 90s feature spare arrangements of guitar and voice. Since the late 1990s Amadou & Mariam produce music that mixes traditional Mali sound with rock guitars, Syrian violins, Cuban trumpets, Egyptian ney, Colombian trombones, Indian tablas and Dogon percussion. All these elements put together have been referred to as "Afro-blues".

More music and videos on The Road.

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Rumble: The Road's Kiva project 1: Danaya

Here is a summary of The Road's first social project:

A micro-financing loan to the Danaya women in Mali.

Danaya is a group of seven women of the Hamdallaye district in the city of Koutiala in Mali. They know each other through the making of the local "pâte" (typically a cooked mash of grain, seeds, or nuts, formed into a ball and eaten with the fingers) called "soumbala". They average 38 years of age. They are married and the mothers of at least four children.

Working for three years with Soro Yiriwaso - a local partner from Kiva- the loans have gone from 50,000 francs CFA (US$110) for the first loan to 150,000 francs (US$330) for the fifth loan. The group members all do the same work: making and selling soumbala. In addition, they have other work, such as knitting.

The current loan will enable them to buy the néré nuts, the base product for their soumbala, in larger quantities and at wholesale rather than retail prices. This will generate more profit. Their goal is to raise a profit of 125,000 francs CFA (US$280) for the duration of the loan. A large portion of the profits will serve to cover the school fees of the children and to cope with the typical family expenses.

In the future, the members will get their supplies from other places in Mali, especially from Gao and Kidal, which will lower the base price once more.

The women of Danaya have a 100% credit repayment history. (See their profile on Kiva)

The current loan request: US$2,050
Raised so far: ~~US$925.00~~ US$2,050 (Nov 3rd 2008)
~~still needed: US$1,125.00 (Nov 3rd 2008)~~
They will repay the loan by May 16th 2009.

More on The Road's social project "Change Starts Here".
You can keep track of our project via our score card.

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West-Africa Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security videos

Here are the testimonial videos we shot for the CCAFS project (Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security) in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali (West Africa).

Clip#1: Tidiane Diarra (Mali)