African Music Night in Aid of Malian Street Children.

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Friday March 16, 2007 21:31 by Jim Sperin

The Sweet Dreams Educational project is based in Mopti, a small town in the West African State of Mali. If you want to find Mali on the map, look directly below Algeria. It’s that enormous, largely blank, chunk of desert between Mauritania and Niger, two other enormous, largely blank, chunks of desert.

To find Mopti, follow the river Niger down from Timbuctu. You’ll find Timbuctu on the Southern edge of the Sahara desert near a large bend in the river. Follow the River downstream, you have to look hard but eventually will come to Mopti.

The project was set up 12 years ago by Dominique Lusardi, a French Algerian woman living in Mali, in order to help young unmarried mothers living on the streets of Mopti. Some of the girls were as young as 14 or 15, many were destitute and stories of rape were common. Others, due to lack of education, simply didn’t understand where their children came from. Most will never return to the villages or families they came from.

At the centre they are assisted, and encouraged, to set up small businesses such as selling fruit on the roadside or perhaps preparing and cooking food to be sold on the street.
However, according to Dominique, “You can’t sell oranges if you can count them”, and this is where the education comes in. About 60% of the population in Mali can neither read nor write. Education, even at a basic level, makes a vital difference, it is a lifeline: not just for the mothers but for their children too.

In the last 18 months we have raised almost € 1,700 for the young mothers and their children at the centre. Several of the girls, who were previously living on the streets, are now in full time education in Bamako, the capital. The money raised also supports the families, friends of the centre, with whom the girls are lodged. The families care for the children while their mothers are in school. We have also delivered pens, pencils and copy books to help other educational projects in and around Mopti and central Mali.

And finally....
Here are a few, quite scary, facts and figures about Mali for you to ponder.
• Mali is the 10th poorest country in the world.
• The average wage is 250 Euros per year.
• There about 6 landline telephones, 10 TVs and 40 radios per 1000 people.
• The average life expectancy is 49 for men and 51 for women.
• The infant mortality rate in Ireland is 5 deaths per 1000 births, in Mali its 145.
• 25% of children suffer with malnutrition.
• There are 22,500 people, per trained doctor.
• There is one pass machine in the entire country.