Gender Equality Mali Project #24187

Help Build a Future for IDP Women & Children

by Arts To End Genocide

Project Report | Nov 11, 2024
Crisis in the Faladje IDP Camp

By Mitch Lewis | Executive Director

Dr. Coulibaly off-site examinations #1

For the past 6 years ATEG has been providing assistance to marginalized women and children in Bamako, Mali. Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries and geopolitical events have compounded the suffering. Our focus has been on the internally displaced persons (IDP) driven from their homes in the Mopti Region of Central Mali by jihadi terrorists. A large number of them have been living in the Faladje IDP Camp, which was built on an active garbage dump.

Over the past few years ATEGs has improved the lives of hundreds of women through our Skills Training Program and changed the lives of children, turning them from street beggars into students through our Childhood Education Program. However, the events of September17 have put the future of these programs and these people into jeopardy.

On that day jihadi terrorists attacked the national airport in Bamako and lit the president’s plane on fire, as well as attacking the Police Training Academy. The Malian government determined that some of these terrorists had infiltrated the Faladje IDP Camp and may have been involved in the attack. They therefore decided to close the camp and relocate the IDPs back to Mopti, where they had fled a dozen years ago. This despite the fact that it is still an active terrorist area which is as dangerous as when they left.

At this time the government has not yet set a date for the camp to be closed, but it will be soon. Our Women’s Cooperative is attempting to gauge how many of its members will agree to go to Mopti and how many will stay in Bamako. Some may live with relatives and others with “host families.” If enough choose to stay, ATEG plans to disassemble their Faladje work facility and reassemble it at a site in Bamako. If this is not possible, we will help them rent a place in Bamako to work in. About half of the schoolchildren are continuing their education in the same school, and some have transferred to schools in other sections of Bamako.

Many of the international NGOs who had been working at Faladje, including the Red Cross have suspended their operations. The women have reached out to ATEG and asked that we not abandon them. These women have endured unspeakable hardships. ATEG programs have given them, and their children hope for their future. We need your help to keep these dreams alive.

Although ATEGs programs at the Faladje Camp may be forced to close, we intend to keep providing skills training to IDP women remaining in Bamako and education to Bamako’s street children. We are also continuing to operate the ATEG/Rotary Children’s Clinic which offers free medical care. This is offered not only at the clinic but also off-site at IDP Camps, orphanages and schools. Your support has enabled us to provide these women and children with achance for a better life.

Dr. Coulibaly off-site examinations #2

Dr. Coulibaly off-site examinations #3

Dr. Coulibaly off-site examinations #4

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Jul 19, 2024
Faladji Camp July 2024 Project Report

By Paula B. Al-Saihati | Vice President

Arts to End Genocide has been working with the Faladji Camp in Bamako, Mali, since 2020.. The people in this camp fled from North and Central Mali due to the conflicts in the areas where they lived.. When they fled south no one would take them so they ended up living literally on a garbage dump in Bamako next to stockyards of cattle and goats.

Arts to End Genocide in partnership with ADICOM, a local based NGO in Mali, has had several programs for these, our brothers and sisters, As you can see on our website, www.artstoendgenocide.org we first helped build a medical facility with the help of Rotary International and Rotary New Bern, NC to treat the 6000 + street children. Arts to End Genocide (ATEG) has been providing doctors and medicine ever since. Other programs that have been started are to help with food insecurity by providing a month’s ration of rice per family. We started a sewing program to train some of the women who now train other women to sew. Some of their products are shown at Tryon Palace in the gift shop in New Bern, NC. A building was constructed to store the sewing machines. A Women’s Cooperative was established so the women themselves could decide how to spend the money generated with their proceeds. We started a Sponsor a Child program to help raise funds for all our programs. The funds generated go to the whole community and not to the child alone. We were excited to start the first school program for children 5-8 years old last Fall to attend first grade. Our project provided clothes and book bags (made by the women that had learned to sew), two pairs of shoes, school supplies, the subscription fees and birth certificates for this first group of children to attend school. ATEG also paid for a supervisor to check on the children, to see that they were attending and how they were doing. In conclusion, we found that the girls were more regularly attending, they also made more progress in the program. For this coming year we will address some of these issues to help the boys better succeed and we hope to start more children in school this Fall.

Our newest programs through a Proctor and Gamble Alumni Grant have now started 3 new training programs for women. One is a soap making program, another henna training, and then milk processing. With these programs we hope to get more women self-sufficient to help their families.

We are in great appreciation to all our donors and sponsors that have helped in ATEG’s endeavor to make a better life for these our brothers and sisters in the Faladji Camp in Bamako, Mali.

Sincerely Submitted by,

Paula Saihati

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Jun 8, 2024
Women Are Learning New Skills

By Mitch Lewis | Executive Director

Phase ll of the women skills training program in Bamako, Mali is now underway. Women are being trained for a variety of vocations which will empower them and restore their dignity. Following are the new skills that the women are learning :

Saponification training A training center called INNOVA, with more than 10 years of women’s training experience was selected to conduct the training. The training began on Wednesday May 16. Our first class included twenty women, however many more women have signed up for our next classes.

The Milk prosessing training : We contracted with a Women Cooperative which was coached by a specialized NGO in Milk processing. The NGO has trained more than 150 women working in Bamako and surrounding areas in commercialzing milk. The Cooperative and the NGO called CAB DEMESO pointed out that there is a big need for milk in Bamako and the surrounding areas. They said that 20% of the needs for milk where covered by their activities . For them, training in milk processing is a good choice. However the trainees have to be hard workers as milk is a product that easily spoils. It is espcially challenging now since there is a scarcity of electricity and the government is holding rolling blackouts. Despite the challenges, milk processing is still a profitable activity for women and many of their trainees are now economically independent.

HENA : We received the technical offer of the training from a women center called AL FIRDAWS, They have trained many young ladies who are now doing business on their own. They are finishing a one month training with a group of 30 Women and the training will end on May 25. Our ladies will be enrolled in the next group which will start soon.

The Gardening activities : The site has been selected and the engineer is working on the water system plan. The IDPs in Zantiguila have moved from their first site to another one where a water point with a larger water capacity has been created. The Agronomist has also visited the site and suggested more profitable vegetables, which can be sold at the market including eggplants, african eggplants, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, water melon, beets and lettuce.

Photos show the training in saponification and milk processing.

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