Mali: Food for Life Project Underway
Food for Life Project Underway in Mali
ADRA is providing essential nourishment for vulnerable children in Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The West African nation suffers from low literacy, low per capita income, food insecurity, and limited infrastructure. Mali has one of the world’s lowest life expectancies and highest under-five mortality rates.
The region of Gao, located in eastern Mali, along with the regions of Mopti and Timbuktu, is extremely food insecure.
In response, ADRA Mali is implementing Food for Life, a one-year project to distribute food to malnourished children at health centers and schools in nomad locations. HELP International and ADRA Germany, in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), are financing this project.
From January to December 2007, ADRA plans to distribute in Gao a minimum of 180 tons of enriched flour, 20 tons of oil, and 15 tons of sugar. According to the WFP agreement, the project objectives include improving the nutritional status of children by providing food for children aged six months to 59 months, schoolchildren, and their families.
Mali physician returns home with new vision for change
Mali physician returns home with new vision for change
March 6, 2007
Dr. Ghislain Noumsi types blood at LifeShare Blood Centers. Noumsi is the first West African doctor to complete training as a Specialist in Blood Banking. (Robert Ruiz/The Times)
RELATED LINKS
LifeShare Blood Centers: www.lifeshare.org
American Society for Clinical Pathology: www.ascp.org
International Society of Blood Transfusions: www.isbt-web.org
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maryjimenez@gannett.comAfter a year in the United States, West African physician Ghislain Noumsi is headed home to Mali where he can make a difference.
Noumsi, who grew up in a country where dirt roads, rolling blackouts and a 150-mile journey to a doctor are still common, spent the last year in Shreveport conducting research and doing clinicals at the LifeShare Blood Centers, one of his requirements before earning a certification as a specialist in blood bank technology.
“When you are coming from (a place that has so little) it’s not easy to know what’s next,” said Noumsi, 30, who returns to his French-speaking country after embarking on a 19-hour travel itinerary today.
Noumsi will visit his family in Cameroon before heading back to the blood center — Centre Nacional de Transfusion Sanguine — in Bamako, Mali. “Now I have vision of a different world. It’s much clearer.”
Noumsi participated in the specialist in blood bank technology distance learning program through the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He conducted his research and clinical rotations at LifeShare Blood Centers under the mentorship of internationally renowned researchers Drs. JoAnn and John Moulds.
The Moulds met Noumsi in 2004 during one of their numerous trips to Mali while working on a malaria research project.
“John was working with many of the students there working at the blood bank and we knew training in blood bank technology was needed. So we brought the idea back to the CEO of LifeShare,” said JoAnn Moulds, who along with her husband is medical technologist certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.
The couple are known for their work in the field of blood groups. “We identified Ghislain as a good candidate because he knew how to speak English so well.”
Noumsi takes with him a strategy to bring new standards into the blood bank center in Mali, a core understanding behind techniques already being used and the knowledge to create his own reagents to screen for blood groups, a skill vital to African nations and other third-world countries.
Most people are familiar with the ABO major blood group, but there are actually 29 blood groups systems recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusions. Rare blood typing is especially important in Africa where rare blood types show up more frequently.
Noumsi has also applied for a grant to continue research he began with JoAnn Moulds studying the association between the Knops blood group and tuberculosis. TB, malaria and HIV are the three deadliest killers in Africa.
“For four years at the blood bank (in Mali) I learned everything from just looking and doing,” Noumsi said. “Now I have the picture behind that.”
Noumsi will be the first specialist in blood bank technology in his country. Training others with the same understanding will be key to improvements, he said.
Noumsi, who studied many hours by candlelight or under a street light to earn his medical degree in Mali, enjoyed a lifestyle this past year he won’t have when he gets home.
A few things he’ll miss is steak, spicy food and an abundant supply of good coffee and fine chocolate. But he’s overjoyed to be going home.
“There are some people that are moving out (of the country) to live a better life, but if everyone goes, nothing can be done (to improve the conditions),” said Noumsi, who has three sisters, the oldest of whom also a doctor. “Maybe I would like to return and tell my success story.”
Mali: 46 trafficked boys found in Sikasso
Source: IOL
Bamako - Malian authorities intercepted 46 boys from neighbouring Ivory Coast being trafficked to Europe and will soon send them home, Mali’s Ministry for Family, Women and Children said on Monday.
Malian police discovered the group last week in a villa in the southeastern town of Sikasso, where they had spent more than two months waiting for papers from traffickers who charged them or their families up to 300 000 CFA francs each to get to Europe, officials said.
“These people are determined and organised,” said Moussa Tamboura, deputy director at the ministry. He could not say how old the boys were, or what they had expected to do once they got to Europe.
Mali: Peace Corps volunteer tells students of life in Africa
Peace Corps volunteer tells students of life in Africa
St. Mary’s School students learned about living in a Third World country via a telephone conversation with a former student, Greg Darr, who is serving with the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa.
As part of the annual Peace Corps Week celebrations, the Peace Corps is sponsoring telephone calls between Peace Corps volunteers and the U.S. classrooms with which they have been corresponding through the Peace Corps Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools program.
Mali: New York City fire kills 9
I’m sad to write about the fire which killed 9 Malians in New York, but unfortunately it’s a story which cannot be ignored. Most papers are reporting it in various degrees of detail. Here are just two of the reports.
Mali: African countries to boost cross-border cooperation
Source: People’s Daily
African countries to boost cross-border cooperation African countries are to strengthen their cross-border cooperation, similar to the one practiced in the sub-region of West African, according to news reaching here on Thursday from Mali’s capital city Bamako.
An African meeting on cross-border cooperation opened in Bamako on Thursday morning, under the auspices of the African Union (AU) Commission, with the collaboration of Sahel and West Africa Club, according to Malian Press and Publicity Agency.
The two-day meeting marks the beginning of a process leading to the ministerial conference which is scheduled to take place in May in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
On this occasion, participants from several African countries, African political organizations and financial institutions, as well as those from the United Nation’s Development Program will examine all aspects of the AU Commission’s program on African borders.
The AU program, which is inspired by the current cross-border cooperation in West Africa, aims at creating development and cooperation zones, strengthening cross-border cooperation and harmonizing the integration policies.
Source: Xinhua
Mali Music: A Timbuktu Funk Affair - A Benefit Event
A Timbuktu Funk Affair: A Benefit Event 03/07/2007 07:39PM
Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.
San Francisco (California), USA - The Marin-based Global Education and Action Network (GLEAN) and The Timbuktu Music Project will hold their annual fundraiser concert March 23rd at SomArts Cultural Center (934 Brannan Street – between 8th and 9th Street). Headliners will be the critically-acclaimed local favorites, Sila and the Afrofunk Experience.
Entrance to the event is $20 for adults and $10 for students, but anyone who RSVPs to timbuktufunk@hotmail.com by March 21st will be added to the guest-list and pay only $15. The all-ages event will raise funds for musical education and instruments in Mali, as well as this year’s youth expedition to West Africa, where Bay Area teens will learn about, and help document local culture, and especially music.
The night’s events will include an African buffet, a bazaar, a silent auction as well as a paintings and photographs by local artists for sale. Several African restaurants have agreed to donate their services to form a buffet, and there will also be a bar. African arts, jewelry and crafts sellers from around the San Francisco Bay Area will be selling exotic goods.For more information go to www.gleansworld.org.
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