A Tribute to a Great Friend

Cristina Nardone

January 15, 1982 to December 02, 2008

Sometimes Mali is hard, sometimes it's easy. Whether it was difficult or easy you were always there to encourage me. I met you one of my first days in Mali and we immediately formed a bond that was strong. You helped me get comfortable in a country where I didn't know left from right. I was elated when I found out we would be regionmates. You were so strong and I knew I'd make it if I had your personality around me all the time. You came to visit me and gave me pointers on how best to succeed with my projects. I admired all of the work you had done, all of the relationships you built. Some people say that your eyes are the windows to your soul. Your eyes are beautiful, but for me it's your smile that reveals everything. You never let Mali defeat you, even if you got mad. You always bounced back from minor things that held the rest of us down. You came to help and change peoples’ lives and you did more than you'll ever know. I think of myself as a strong person, but I don't know I would have made it in Mopti region without your words of wisdom to stay there. In the end, it was the best decision I've ever made. I want you to know that you will always be one of the most missed people in my and our lives. We miss you and we love you and we will think about you and your spirit and your way of dealing with everyday situations in our everyday lives. I've already started to introduce some of your habits into my own and I only hope that I can be as true to them as you would have been.

Thinking of you forever and may you rest in peace in El Salvador and in our hearts and minds.

World AIDS Day in Mali

December 1st is World AIDS Day. It's a day to bring about awareness of HIV/AIDS and to encourage testing and education about the disease. In Africa, it's that much more important. However, most people think that the entirety of Africa is plagued by the disease. Southern Africa, including South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho - to name a few - are the countries most plagued with prevalence rates as high as about 40%. However, in West Africa, the rates aren't nearly as high. Here in Mali, for example, the rate is about 2.1% - a far cry from 40%.

Because I'm not working on a community health initiative, I had the idea that we should have an event for World AIDS Day. We're in the process of building a clinic and we're trying to get the word out to the community that we are an organization that is here to help and promote better health practices. We've mainly been focusing on malaria because it's a huge problem here in Mali, but I felt we had a chance to branch out. We invited a local organization call DJEKAFO along with CESAC who does HIV testing. The information that was given out was helpful and we had a decent turnout. Convincing Malian's to get HIV tested is pretty difficult, but we were able to get 40 volunteers!

DJEKAFO presenting their educational materials on HIV/AIDS and explaining the importance of knowing your status and not judging those around you who may be HIV positive.

Oumou Camara, a member of the microfinance committee, and Madame Niare - both CHAG members - waiting for community members to arrive.

Later in the afternoon, we had a tombola (raffle) and a football (soccer) game to get more people out. If there's anything that can pull a crowd, it's a football game. So, we got the word out early and sold tickets for the tombola - all of the proceeds going to the community's contribution for their new clinic - and raffled off buckets filled with needed goods: spaghetti, sugar, milk, notebooks, pens, etc. We raised about 60,000 CFA ($120) in the raffle! During the selling of the final tickets, a pretty awesome game was had. Because of the political differences between the neighborhoods that we work in, there was a lot riding on the game in terms of pride. Sikoroni played Sourakabougou and Sourakabougou won!

Team Sikoroni wearing shirts donated from ChocoMali.

Team Sourakabougou wearing our World AIDS Day shirts.

It was a great day and it was nice to see our Community Health Action Group (CHAG) get involved and spread the world and get the community to give back to themselves in the form of their clinic. It's been an uphill battle, but I think we're getting there!

The football field, with mini Dogon Country in the background.

An action shot of a great game.

Thanks to all the members of Sikoroni and Sourakabougou and the members of CHAG and MHOP for making today a successful day!