Accelerated learning offers disadvantaged children in Mali a chance to go to school
BAMAKO, Mali, 4 January 2012 – “My dream is to become a doctor, to treat children in difficult circumstances,” said Assan Coulibaly, 10. Her father passed away, and she now lives with her mother, who gets by with the income from a small business. Assan has three sisters and a brother. Helping at home has meant missing the opportunity to be enrolled in school.
Expanding basic health services to children and women in Mali
NEW YORK, USA, 13 December 2011 – The roar of a motorbike heralds the arrival of health workers in a remote village in Kayes District, Mali. They are bringing life-saving medical supplies to communities that lack easy access to health care.
Threat of malnutrition dire in Africa's Sahel region due to increasing food shortages
DAKAR, Senegal, 12 December 2011 – It’s not a tsunami or an earthquake – it is a predictable emergency. UNICEF estimates more than a million children under five will need to be treated in feeding centres for severe malnutrition in the Sahel region of Africa. It is a staggeringly high number, and there is little time to prepare.
Young photographers from Niger and Mali document the problems facing their communities
BAMAKO, Mali, 6 December 2011 – “This child looks very mean, and it’s a consequence of life on the street,” said 17-year-old Rachida Aboubacar, gazing at a photograph taken by one of her friends.
'Girl friendly/child-friendly' schools provide a brighter future in Mali
BENENA, Mali, 18 August 2011 - At a public meeting in the village of Benena, in Mali’s Segou Region, a gathering of women collectively shot their hands up in the air when asked why girls’ education in their community had been neglected in the past. Florence Koné, wearing a dress made of colorful fabric to commemorate International Women’s Day, stood up with a rush of enthusiasm. “You want to know why previously we didn’t educate our girls?” she exclaimed. “I’ll tell you. We were afraid they might get in trouble - maybe they would get pregnant, maybe they would leave school.”
Child-friendly village schools support education for all in Mali
DOUGOUBA, Mali, 15 June 2011 – Just 15 years ago, there were no primary schools in the village of Dougouba. In fact, some members of this community, located in Mali’s Segou Region, had resisted the idea of formal education for decades.
Empowering marginalized children through photography in Mali
BAMAKO, Mali, 28 April 2011 – Hawa Coulibaly, 16, has spent the last nine months training to become a tailor, but she is also interested in photography. “By the end of the training, I hope I will know how to take pictures of my designs,” she says on the first day of the Eye See workshop.
Musician Habib Koité inaugurated as first-ever UNICEF Mali Ambassador
BAMAKO, Mali, 13 October 2010 – As the remains of a dreary, water-logged afternoon drew to a close last month, a large crowd congregated at the National Museum of Mali for a decidedly sunny purpose: to celebrate musician Habib Koité and his inauguration as the first-ever National Ambassador for UNICEF in Mali.
A community-led approach to sanitation and hygiene saves lives in Mali
BAMAKO, Mali, 11 October 2010 – Defecating in the open is still a common practice throughout rural regions of Mali, and in many villages, latrines are constructed only for the elderly or disabled.
Fighting Guinea Worm, a waterborne blight in Mali
GAO, Mali, 4 October 2010 – Guinea Worm, a painful parasitic disease, is endemic in northern Mali. Transmitted through contaminated water sources, the illness is just one of many challenges in ensuring safe water, sanitation and hygiene in the country.
National plan for the promotion of water and sanitation under way in Mali
SOUFOUROULAYE, Mali, 19 August 2010 – At the Soufouroulaye Primary School in Mali, a derelict water pump stands dry in the dusty playground, quenching no one's thirst.
Rising food prices in Mali escalate undernutrition amongst children
SIKASSO, Mali, 3 June 2010 – In the far south of Mali, one of the country’s main agricultural areas, the Sikasso region, is rich in fertile soil. But despite the region’s capacity to feed its people, the children of Sikasso are suffering from alarmingly high rates of undernutrition.
Mobile cinema helps change attitudes about female genital mutilation/cutting in Mali
BOUGOUNISSABA, Mali, 5 February 2010 – When the Cinéma Numérique Ambulant came to Djènèba Doumbia’s village, the young women had no idea how it would change her life.
Hygiene education for a village in Mali
FADIEDA, Mali, 8 December 2009 – The village of Fadieda is at the forefront of a new pilot programme in Africa. It’s one of 15 villages selected by UNICEF and the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation to change the way it approaches sanitation.
In Mali, Executive Director focuses on undernutrition and impact of climate change
BAMAKO, Mali, 11 November 2009 – Bisected by the vast and growing Sahara Desert, Mali is a country where food and nutrition security are precarious even in the best of times.
Mali celebrates Global Handwashing Day with live performances and hygiene events
BAMAKO, Mali, 26 October 2009 – For the country of Mali, Global Handwashing Day holds special significance. About one in five children in Mali dies before the age of five and approximately half of these deaths are caused by hygiene-related preventable diseases.
UNICEF in Space: Astronaut and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Frank de Winne talks to school children
GAO VILLAGE, Mali, 23 October 2009 – In the village of Gao, some 1200 km away from Mali’s capital city of Bamako, local children were given the special chance to speak to UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne – live from space.
Peer educators in Mali spread the word about HIV/AIDS
BAMAKO, Mali, 13 March 2007 – Soraya clearly remembers the misconceptions about HIV and AIDS that her uncle passed on to her. She says he told her that the disease was “just a project to get money from developed countries,” that it “does not concern us” and that “white people invented it.”
A UNICEF-supported centre in Mali helps young women in distress
BAMAKO, Mali, 20 June 2006 – “I love my baby,” says Korotoumou, 17, holding her year-old baby girl, Bintou, tightly against her chest. She knows that she might be holding Bintou for the very last time.
Locust swarms put Mali’s economic mainstay at risk
MALI/NEW YORK, 27 August 2004 - Swarms of locusts have invaded Mali (along with Mauritania and other Sahelian countries) putting the economic mainstay of the country – agriculture – at high risk.
