Plan Mali Annual Progress Report 2010

A YEAR IN

MALI

SUMMARY REPORT

2010 Play is used to help stimulate early learning in the village of Niengue-Coura

3

OUR PRIORITIES

GOOD REASONS

in Mali

why Plan works in Mali

• Making sure that children get good healthcare, have enough to eat and are protected against disease

• Almost a fifth of children die before they are five • Less than half of children go to primary school • 27 per cent of children under five are underweight

• Making sure more children get a good quality primary education and helping adults learn to read and write • Ensuring that children and their families live in a clean environment with drinking water and SPAIN sanitation facilities PORTUGAL

ITALY

• Helping the poorest families to increase food production, find ways of making a living and GIBRALTAR MALTA begin to save • Helping communities to prepare for disasters TUNISIA

MOROCCO

‘Today, our hen houses run 12 months a year and each of us regularly sells chickens’

WESTERN SAHARA (OCCUPIED BY MOROCCO)

Mali Facts

LIBYA

MAURITANIA ALGERIA

MALI

Tombouctou Gao er

Sévaré

Barouéli ani

Bamako

NIGER

BURKINA FASO

er

mb

B

ia

Kangaba

Nig

Kati

Country Office Program Units

Nig

l ega

Kita Ga

Niger

Oti

GUINEA

MALI

BENIN

e nu Be Garoua NIGERIA

TOGO

Nig

er

North

Vina

C

e on

GHANA

Char Maroua i g Lo

COTE D'IVOIRE

Black Volta

is agriculture. Cotton is the country’s largest crop export and is exported west throughout Senegal and the Ivory Coast. In addition to cotton, Mali produces rice, Senegal millet, corn, vegetables, tobacco, and tree crops. Gold, livestock and agriculture amount to 80 per cent ofSENEGAL Mali’s exports.

GAMBIA Eighty per cent of Malian workers are GUINEAemployed in agriculture while BISSAU 20 per cent work in the service sector. However, seasonal variations lead to regular temporary unemployment of agricultural workers.

SIERRA LEONE

Sen

Bambara and numerous other African languages Climate: The country’s climate ranges from subtropical in the south to arid in the north.

Most of the country receives negligible rainfall; droughts are frequent. Late June to early December is the rainy season.

During this time, flooding of the Niger River is common.

Economy: Mali’s key industry

a

Population: 13.4 million Capital: Bamako Languages: French (official),

Bung

Children in the village of Karan are tested for Malaria and then vaccinated against whooping cough and diphtheria

Focus On: economic security

In rural areas poverty is widespread and economic opportunities are limited. Plan helps families to increase their incomes so they can meet their children’s basic needs, and helps them to save, to protect them against future difficulties. We help families to increase their food production and find ways of making a living. We support women’s groups and youth groups to set up

small businesses in agriculture, fruit and vegetable growing, and raising livestock. We also help communities to set up credit and savings groups, so even the poorest families can get financial services.

A community volunteer visits a sponsored child and their family

Poultry profits

The Bigger Picture

Thirty-five year old Soidou is explaining why she is proud to be chairwoman of Benkadi, a women’s association supported by Plan, which is helping its members to improve their lives and the lives of their children through poultry farming.

• Supported 57 preschools caring for 5000 under-fives

‘The money we are making through poultry farming has enabled us to improve the quality of our meals, pay our children’s school fees, and take care of ourselves better.’

Meeting children’s needs Soidou is from a village about ten miles from the town of Kita in western Mali. Women here bear a disproportionate burden of meeting their children’s needs, and so improving children’s lives often depends on increasing their mothers’ incomes. Plan helps women find new ways of making a living and getting a better and more reliable income. In Soidou’s village, we recently supported ten women to work together to set up a poultry farming association, and then helped them to set up their own small businesses. The women named their association ‘Benkadi’.

Plan provided training on how to build and maintain hen houses, and how to care for chickens, including feeding and vaccinating them. We provided funds for every woman to buy five hens, and gave each of them a rooster.

We also assisted Benkadi in getting official certification, so the women can get financial services such as credit and loans to run their businesses.

Impressive results All ten women now work full time with their chickens and the initial investment has been well worth it. After two years of involvement in the project, each woman has an average of 50 chickens. All the women are managing to sell between five and ten chickens each at the market in Kita every second month, making about A$3.80 per chicken.

Kali, 25, is enthusiastic about her membership of Benkadi. ‘I am very glad this activity was funded,’ she says. ‘It enables me to meet the expenses for my daughter to attend the preschool. I manage to save thanks to selling hens, and can buy food with the money I get.’

Produced for Mali by Plan International Australia.

Children benefit directly from their mothers’ businesses. One of these is Kadiatou, who is very glad that her mother is part of Benkadi.

She says: ‘Last week, my brother and I were sick with malaria. My mother was able to pay for medical visits and medication expenses with her income from poultry farming.’

Changing perceptions The women’s hard work has provided more than just financial results. Now that they have their own income, women are more respected by their husbands, who recognise their wives’ contribution to solving household problems. They are also more confident in their own abilities.

Soidou explains: ‘Before, poultry farming wasn’t considered as an income generating activity for women. Today, our hen houses run 12 months a year and each of us regularly sells chickens.

It’s a good job. In our association, women often pay family expenses without having to ask their husbands for money.’

Thanks to their hard work and Plan’s support, the members of Benkadi can now plan for a better, happier future for themselves and their children.

Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy reasons

‘Last week, my brother and I were sick with malaria.

My mother was able to pay for medical visits and medication expenses with her income from poultry farming.’

Plan is working with children, families and communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenges in Mali. We have only given you a small insight into Plan’s work in Mali with this report but over the past year we also:

• Provided literacy courses in 41 villages for 1352 people • Worked with the government to provide mosquito nets for 2770 children and pregnant women • Helped vaccinate 33,488 people against meningitis Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these results. With the resources provided by sponsors, Plan expertise and the collaboration of communities and local partners we are making a big difference to the lives of people in Mali.

Thank you for your involvement!

To learn more about Plan’s work in Mali visit plan.org.au/ourwork/westafrica/mali

‘Despite its progress, Plan remains challenged by the enormous problems of children in Mali. However, Plan, with the support of the government and the full participation of the community and the children themselves, is able to deliver good quality projects’ – Supriyanto, Plan’s Country Director in Mali