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Our director gets married and trash will get picked up!- Caroline Mailloux
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Jul 14, 2008 Posted by Caitlin CohenI sit in the courtyard drafting this blog amidst a large group of energetic women in a circle under the shade of the mango trees diligently chopping large piles of onions and garlic. In the corner, a local Sikoronian, Ami, paints traditional Malian geometric designs of henna on Caitlin's feet and hands. The festive air is contagiously exciting. Better yet, it poured throughout the night leaving today's air cool. With all the bustling, the break from the heat is appreciated as tomorrow, MHOP's Malian director will marry! On behalf of the MHOP staff, congratulations, Niang!
The week has brought other exciting updates as well. Specifically, our waste management program, Sikoroni Jeya, has made terrific progress.
We have spent about a month gathering information from various local and governmental actors, which has proven to be both extremely frustrating and extremely rewarding. The frustrating - a number of governmental and community actors are working on non-integrated, over-lapping waste management projects of various qualities and commitment levels. Further, the government promised Sikoroni a truck some time ago for use in waste collection which has not yet arrived. The rewarding – Sikoroni already has a number of waste management organizations in place as well as a number of locally based, youth civic service organizations, involved in both community activism and service. In addition, the government has already begun the removal of trash from the site of the future clinic, scheduled to break ground in October of 2008! The support to combine efforts and collaborate for public trash cleanup days and share information about supply costs has been overwhelmingly positive.
So what happens next? Next week we have arranged a meeting at the Community Center for all of the trash actors to continue sharing ideas in an open forum and planning for three Journées de Salubrité (public clean-up days) in August. The youth organizations have pledged supplies like shovels and manual labor, as well as support in advertising the initiative to other community members. At this meeting, we also hope to discuss ways to make door-to-door waste collection services more affordable, accessible and financially sustainable to Sikoroni families to prevent the public dumping of trash in the future.
A combination of invested community members, supportive local government, cleaning up the current trash eyesore and investing in the prevention of public dumping are key components to establishing Sikoroni Jeya. And we're off to a great start!
Be sure to check back in for updates!
Cheers from sunny Sikoroni,
Caroline Mailloux
MHOP Sanitation Coordinator