Welcome to the Summer Newsletter, with recent news about our projects in Mali, plus recent and planned events and activities

 

 

As reported in the last newsletter MDG equipped the clinic last year, and now we have been able to provide money for the drugs and medications to complete the job. Special thanks are due to Pat Goodwin and Stewart Jeffrey who between them raised most of the money. In Stewart’s case money came from sponsors for his Land’s End to John O’Groat’s ‘End to End’ bike ride.

 

MDG and J&D have a long -standing link with this village, and the latest project is to help develop an access centre for children who have never previously been to school or started school and then dropped out. This will involve work on a building and then providing funds for all the books and equipment. Literacy levels remain worryingly low in rural Mali, and this will be an important resource for the village. Some of Stewart’s ‘End to End’ money has given us a start and we will be able to complete this task by the end of the Summer.

 

As well as working in Manankoro, J&D have developed a programme on family health in the Yanifolila area, also in southern Mali. This is funded by MRDF but MDG will be supporting smaller scale projects where need is identified. Fraser Horn, a young man from Stadhampton in Oxfordshire has recently spent several months in Yanifolila working as a volunteer with MDG. He says that very few people there had seen Europeans before and that he was overwhelmed by the warmth and kindness of local people. He visited projects, worked in one of the local schools and helped coach sports- especially football- a major Malian passion. Fraser will be talking about his experiences and showing his photographs at Vine Cottage, The Green, Stadhampton, Oxfordshire on 5^th August from 7p.m. Please contact Ken and Linda King on 01865 890829 if you would like to be there. Well done Fraser- it’s a great achievement.

The MDG funded Reproductive Health Programme continues to flourish, and Soumaila Moro the Project Manager recently reported on the latest training programme for 30 young people - a week-long programme - to prepare them for work in schools and groups across Commune IV in Bamako. The Commune has a population roughly the same size as a town like Reading, and is a quarter of the city of Bamako. The project is the only one of its kind in the area. The Peer Educators’ work includes education about sex and HIV risk, but also helps prevent the traditional practice of excision- still a real fear for some of the young women whom the project helps. Our plan for 2008/11 is to extend the project even further. We have had funding from many sources so far, but the biggest contributor has been Truckfest, the Oxfordshire Music Festival, which has provided almost £30,000 to date. Thiscollaboration has enabled youngfestival-goers in England to make a real difference in Mali - we hope very much that the partnership will continue to develop. Our links to Truck include providing volunteer stewards for both the Wood and main Truck Festivals - and thanks to everyone who has turned out this year to take their turn with the High-Vis jackets and rubbish bags!

Kader Keita and his team have been working recently with another group of street children, and he is preparing a report, and apparently a video about the project. Thanks very much to Tim and Andrea Hewes for their continuing support for Kader’s work. Mark Ereira- Guyer, who visited Mali with MDG in January, recently hosted a reception for his consultancy firm in Bury St Edmunds with an exhibition of his photographs from the trip. Sales of the pictures and other donations will go to Kader’s work as well. 

 

Thanks to the Bernwode Trust, and also Janet Longstaff our work with the women suffering from fistula continues - we have recently been able to send a further contribution to help the Imaneh organisation and support the women’s laundry.

 

 

 Marriage in the Air

Mamadou Kone the Director of J&D is to be married on 31^st July, and our Link Worker Tanty Samake, was recently married in Bamako. Warmest congratulations to both of them and their new partners from everyone in MDG.

Recently Laurence Lalanne-Devlin tendered her resignation as MDG Chair after serving since the organisation was founded as a charity. Her experience and insight enabled her to make an important contribution to the work of MDG over the years, and we are pleased that she will continue to support our work as a member. Many thanks Laurence for all your work, and good wishes to Friends of Bonou and its continued progress.

 

 

 

Miss Jean Mossop, an MDG member almost from the beginning, died recently after a long period of illness. In a long life as a teacher, Miss Mossop gave support and encouragement to people she believed in. She learned about Mali because she wanted to support Sue Upton’s work there, and over time she gave generously to our work. We kept in touch with her by letter, and she always appreciated information about Sue and J&D. Always aware of keeping overheads to a minimum she would always send a stamp to cover our reply. Her support and thoughtfulness were really important to MDG especially in the early stages.

 

 

·        Becky Mulley successfully completed the Stockholm Marathon and raised a good sum for MDG by sponsorship. Well done Becky, and thanks. With Stewart Jeffrey’s bike ride as well we have had great ‘long distance’ support this Summer.

 

·        The June members’ walk and lunch was a big success with over 30 people taking part, and we obtained some new members as a result. Many thanks to Ken and Linda King.

 

·        Andrea Hewes represented MDG at both the Kennington Open Gardens Day, where we were able to update Kennington Overseas Aid Week on the progress of the market gardens in Manankoro, and the Malverns Development Education Conference on Water issues where we had a display about our Mafele dam project. Thanks for ‘flying the flag’ Andrea.

A range of events is planned for the rest of the year, but two important ones for your diary are as follows:

 

Full details of timings and the agenda for the AGM are accompanying this mailing. As you will see lunch is followed by the AGM itself, when we will have Sally Baden of Oxfam as guest speaker on Fair Trade and Cotton. After the meeting there will be a cricket match between and MDG XI and Stadhampton- at which we hope for revenge having lost last year. Please come to the day if you can- it will also be an opportunity to meet Tiedjan Bougoudougou, Operational manager of J&D who is on an MDG sponsored visit to England between 1^st and 14^th September.

 

Through MDG committee member and bass guitarist for Redhouse we have a great chance to hear good music and make some money for MDG. Tickets £11 - advance booking from Rob Spivey on 01787 375099

 

As an experiment Sue Raikes is planning to have some clothes and cotton bags made in Mali by young people from the J&D Comic Relief funded Micro-projects in Bamako. Sue has said that she will give the profits to MDG- so look out for these (and of course our MDG Gift Vouchers) at future events.