From the new Toubab in Town

(Mali Health Organizing Project)   Friends of the Mali Health Project:

After a colorful month of creating a fictitious husband to ward off local suitors and impressing neighborhood children with my jump roping skills, I am excited to be writing to you from Bamako as your new director. In the past weeks, I have rapidly depleted my candy stash by bribing my six-year old host brother for Bambara lessons, soaked in the bustling energy of the Sikoroni market, and most importantly witnessed our projects in action. Whether watching Ami Keita lead a malaria prevention workshop, facilitating a Health Action Group meeting to plan our next trash-clean up festival, or laughing at the MHOP radio soap opera on local politicians, there is no doubt in my mind that our programs are catalyzing health change.

Several months back I accepted this job on the basis that there is no shortage of NGOs but rather a lack of effective NGOs– and Mali Health Project promises to fill that need. I come to MHOP with experience in health education in Ecuador, arts programs in US prisons, pediatric AIDS in Ethiopia, and anti-genocide organizing in the US. In short, I have worked in a lot of organizations– organizations with different target problems, different solutions, and different ideologies about how these changes can be achieved.

What attracted me to MHOP– and what continues to convince me of its potential– are its ideals of bottom-up health care. MHOP recognizes and values solutions to primary health care that include and emphasize community deliberation, organization, and action. To date, MHOP has taken action towards bottom-up health care deliverance by organizing community leaders to brainstorm solutions to community problems, ranging from an innovative recycling program to both clean up trash and fund clinic visits, the construction of a community-managed clinic, the creation of a senate subcommittee for primary health, to name a few.  All this is to say that today MHOP exists upon a firm foundation, but this is just the beginning. As your new director, I am nothing short of ecstatic to work with you as MHOP changes the face of global health.

Anna Ninan