MALI: Raising money and hygiene standards

Posted on | March 3, 2009 | No Comments

MKFC Ghana CAP Unit Project Leader Kay Obiri writes about women in one of the poorest areas of Mali’s capital, Bamako, have found a way to tackle hygiene issues and earn money at the same time – by making soap.

The sprawling slum area of Nafadji- on the capital’s outskirts- is largely agricultural but has been increasingly taken over by urban growth, exacerbating its social and economic problems, according to local NGOs. School attendance is low and unemployment high. The closest health centre is 3km away.
“Hygiene standards in the Nafadji area of town were very very low, due to lack of infrastructure and because of ignorance,” Djibril Coulibaly, hygiene coordinator of Malian non-profit JIGI, told IRIN. “We carried out research that showed contaminated water and a lack of water were causing disease, but also that behaviors’ surrounding hand washing had an impact.”

The situation in Mali’s capital, Bamako, is something that is taking place all over Africa. There are many communities that consider themselves helpless. Out of ignorance most have jeopardized their own lives without even knowing it.
Without the right steps to ensure education is provided for all, to learn and apply, the health issues that many face which can be avoided, in reality will become the cause of dangerous diseases and sicknesses.

The need for Organizations, Schools, CAP (Community Action Plan) teams to take steps and educate these poverty stricken communities on the importance of education, their health, and personal hygiene is an issue that should be addressed right away if we are to overcome the problems that developing countries are currently facing.

It is also in these communities that some traditional beliefs have played a crucial role in directing people away from the right way of tackling major health issues. One would question this sad statement in the article above, “In my area if you wash your hands, there is a belief that you will become poor,” said AFSAN member Fatoumata Haidara. “Even intellectual people would not wash their hands.”

t is clear that if steps are not taken to change the wrongful mind set of the communities that stick to these old beliefs, the problems that will result out of these communities in the future, will be far more than one could have anticipated.

Fadji Women’s Association (AFSAN), along with the help of JIGI and WaterAid supported the production of these soaps that did not only help these people break the mentality of not washing, but also provided a means for the women to raise money for support!
Where there is the will for change, change occurs only when steps are put into effect to ensure the occurrence of change!

Read the whole article here

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