Mali: report 2010

September 2010:  The AAG is a member of the regional framework for the protection of children but works under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Well-being of Children.  As a result we are invited to take part in a meeting with the Department for the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family.  The meeting is to decide on a course of action for a baby whose mother is a mentally impaired Ghanaian woman living on the streets and unable to adequately care for her child.  As an interim measure the baby is placed in the care of the Matron at the Gedeye Community Health Centre, under the instruction of the judge for children.

The changeover of the seasons is always the most difficult period.  Malnutrition is rife and we receive many new children ; 8 in 2 days, two are triplets (the third having died), there are two sets of twins and two further babies all suffering from different problems.

One piece of good news, we finally receive our framework agreement from the Ministry duly signed.  Sophie has to travel to Bamako to collect it and co-ordinates this with meeting the Swiss president of the AAG who has arrived in convoy with the JEM (Jeunesse en Mission).  After the excited greetings and a night spent in Fana the various material plus a new engine for the truck are loaded for the final leg of the journey.  God willing it will be an uneventful journey.

The orphans are all doing well, even though they are a little intimidated by the new white woman who has arrived from Switzerland.  Only the bravest are willing to pose for photographs.

At the Nutritional Recovery Unit there are many tiny babies, most weighing less than 2 kilos, several of them are twins.  All these tiny human beings are fighting for survival.

We take in a baby girl whose mother died in childbirth on her way to hospital.  Her twin sister also died as a result of lack of care due to the inability of the family to pay for hospital treatment.  We are horrified and revolted by the lack of human warmth shown by the hospital staff but this is often the case in Gao and throughout Mali and Africa.

October 2010 :  The president of the AAG has arrived at the end of the formalities necessary for the construction of the Reception Centre.  All the contracts have been drawn up and signed and a small ceremony is held with all the major contractors to lay the first stone.  Work will begin in earnest on the 18th of October and the president can return home reassured that work has begun.

The twin baby girl, named Fatoumata Sofia, cannot stay at the Nutritional Recovery Unit.  There are too many sick children there and she is too fragile to be exposed to these infections.  Koutoum and Christine volunteer to look after her.  If only our Reception Centre had been built there would not have been a problem.

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The bush has come back to life

Fana, transfer of the engine and material

Fana, the final moments before departure

Replacing the engine

Orphaned triplets

At the Nutritional Recovery Unit

Fatoumata Sofia, the recovering twin