Meet Korotoumou

Meet Korotoumou

by | Sep 20, 2017 | Women-Led Health Financing

It’s late afternoon and women in Kalabambougou begin gathering for their weekly savings group, in the shade of an old moringa tree. Korotoumou Camara, 25, is there with two of her six children. She is steeping the first round of sweetened green tea for the group’s members. There are freshly roasted peanuts for sale and another woman is selling chunks of juicy watermelons. One group member braids another’s hair, and a young girl is hanging brightly colored clothes on the line to dry. This is where the members of Ben Kadi (mutual understanding) and Yelen (light) meet to save for their future needs. The group has two names because there are two things the women save money for: healthcare and small business activities.

Korotoumou is the group’s treasurer. When she isn’t meeting with the other women, she is busy with her small business selling vegetables at the nearby market or doing the never-ending work to keep her home functioning (cooking, cleaning, minding the kids). Her oldest child is eleven and her youngest is the nine-month-old girl in her lap commanding her fullest attention. She thinks education is important, so her five school-aged children are all enrolled at the nearby public school. Korotoumou and her husband, a local brick mason, had limited education when they were younger. He attended a traditional Islamic school, or madrassa, for eight years and she attended a public school until grade 5.

Korotoumou counts her group's weekly savings as group members observe
Korotoumou counts her group’s weekly savings as group members observe

Korotoumou was in a savings group before Mali Health introduced the idea of adding a health savings aspect. She says that contributing members feel a new sense of ownership for their family’s health needs. Before the health savings group, when one of her children required a visit to the doctor, she was unsure how she would pay for the visit and any medicines. She did not like asking family or friends for a loan because it made her and her husband feel embarrassed. Now, with the ability to take a loan from her savings group, they feel a sense of pride in being able to do for themselves what so often they had to rely on others for.

There was a health center built in Kalabambougou a few years ago, but it never opened. There is a solar-powered water tower that is empty and beginning to rust. A maternity ward with gurneys and delivery areas are collecting dust and cobwebs. The grounds serve as a temporary farm field for the family tasked with caring for the vacant health center until whatever local political dispute preventing its opening is resolved. Korotoumou shakes her head and laughs when talking about the unopened health center; she doesn’t think there’s anything she can do about it. Though, it would be convenient to have a closer health center. The closest Mali Health partner is over three miles away, so she uses the health center in the next town.

When one of Korotoumou’s children falls ill, she knows it immediately. Instead of running around playing with friends, she says they remain at home asking to sleep and lay down. At this is telltale sign, she now goes to the health center with confidence that she can afford the visit and treatment. She and her husband still wait to see if their symptoms clear up on their own, but she doesn’t wait for her children because she knows they are at greater risk and require timely treatment. The most frequent illness the family encounters is malaria, especially during the rainy season when the mosquito population booms. She and her husband still use traditional herbal medicine to treat less severe cases of malaria because it is cheaper than western medicine, and in their experience, just as effective.

The institutions that Korotoumou and her family rely on are fragile and it is difficult for her to feel secure in their future. The fear of not being able to provide for their children’s health needs used to keep her up at night. But with the support from her savings group, she can now rest a little easier. The collective nature gives her confidence that her community cares and it instills in her a feeling of agency. She knows she is contributing to better health – not just for her children, but many other children in Kalabambougou.

About Kalabambougou

Kalabambougou is a peri-urban community not far from the busy streets of Bamako’s city center. After leaving the paved roads behind, drivers go from dodging the moto bikes that weave in and out of traffic to skirting the car-sized pot holes formed by the deluge of the rainy season. Residents have recently filled potholes with large boulders that they will smash into smaller pieces with sledgehammers. It’s daunting work, made more intolerable by the relentless heat and humidity. But maintenance of these dirt roads is vital because they ensure access to Bamako, the markets, and the closest health center.

Piles of rocks fill in holes in the road to Kalabambougou
Why Intentional Learning Matters to Us

Why Intentional Learning Matters to Us

by | Aug 17, 2017 | Learning, Quality Improvement

This blog originally appeared on the Center for Health Market Innovations blog.

In early 2017, Mali Health partnered with Wild4Life Health and The Ihangane Project to participate in the 2017 CHMI Learning Exchange program. Our organizations explored the different contexts in which we work, sharing successes and challenges related to our respective continuous quality improvement programs.  
 
Afterwards, Tara and Mariam returned to Bamako to share what we learned with the rest of our team. This was our first opportunity to participate in a formal learning exchange with other organizations working on quality improvement. We were eager to see how the approach that we designed with our partners in Mali compared to other quality improvement programs across the continent. The exchange led to some unexpected lessons. So we decided to reflect on why we’re determined to learn from others, and why we seek opportunities like these. Together, our entire team reflected and engaged in a conversation about learning. Below are the main points our junior and senior program managers wish to share with others:

Why is it important to participate in intentional learning opportunities and to learn from other organizations?

  • People learn from those in their life – parents, teachers or friends. It’s no different for organizations. If we are committed to learning, we must interact with other organizations, learning from them and sharing our information with them.
  • Above all, we care about impact, and learning from others is essential to ensuring that we’re having a high impact. We can benchmark our approach with similar strategies, asking questions like who is seeing better results, and why? We can also learn about entirely new strategies that may result in better implementation and impact than our current approaches.
  • Learning exchanges may lead to new opportunities, like partnerships with organizations or funders that will allow us to extend our impact. A learning exchange also doesn’t have to end. As partners, we can continue to be resources for one another, sharing questions and results in the future, not just about program models, but about operations or any subject our organizations share in common.

  Why do we value intentional learning at Mali Health?

  • In our Quality Improvement (QI) program, we bring our partner community health centers together to share their successes and challenges. It helps them learn what others have done to solve similar problems, including what works well and what to avoid. In a resource-limited setting, learning from others helps our partners be as efficient and effective as possible. The same is true for our organization as a whole.
  • Not only is learning and building skills a core program strategy, capacity building is a core value of our organization. To strengthen communities and community health systems, we must always be open and eager to strengthen ourselves.
  • We are committed to the professional development of our entire team; we want each team member to set goals and to continuously grow and improve. Learning opportunities enable our staff to acquire new skills and to succeed in their positions now and in the future.

  What advice would we give to other teams trying to implement a culture of learning in their organizations?

  • Involve everyone in the organization, from the Director to the junior staff. Everyone has to be committed to learning, and everyone has to have opportunities to learn
  • Document your goals for learning; develop a protocol for when and how it’s going to happen, and then track whether it did or not.
  • Make learning a regular routine. Try not to just gather everyone in a giant meeting room once a year for a two-hour seminar. Build learning opportunities into your regular activities and supervision so that it becomes a common part of your work. Your team will understand how learning is related to and benefits your organization, your beneficiaries, and them.
  • Allow for choice. Give opportunities for each employee to decide what subjects or skills are the most interesting or helpful for them, either within or in addition to your core values and goals as an organization. Choice allows individuals to take ownership of the process and gives a feeling of opportunity, rather than obligation, both of which will increase morale.

Mali Health greatly values the opportunity to learn from other organizations, programs and contexts. In our current strategic plan, we renewed our commitment to learning, not only as a means for strengthening our programs, but as a professional development opportunity for our staff. We encourage all organizations to openly and actively share and seek the knowledge and experience gained from our respective work – the communities we serve and our entire sector would benefit from less competition and more collaboration.

Lindsay Ryan remembers 10 years of Mali Health

Lindsay Ryan remembers 10 years of Mali Health

by | Oct 11, 2016 | Mali Health

The following comes from Lindsay Ryan, a founding member of Mali Health, as part of Mali Health’s 10th anniversary celebration.

Back in 2006, Mali Health was just an idea – one inspired by the vibrant and resilient community members of Sikoro and the health challenges they faced and articulated with often painful insight. What we all shared then, Malians and Americans alike, was a love for the place and a sense of urgency over the terrible toll of preventable disease, especially among children and mothers.

It turns out that common values and passion can get you through a lot.  Back then, it was the sheer challenge of starting programs from the ground up – from matters as small as registering an NGO to those as large as problem-solving how to create a democratic and representative community health action group. Today, the hurdles are those involved in running a large and sustainable organization, one that even weathered and played a pivotal role during the Ebola crisis. I never could have imagined back then how far Mali Health would have come today, both in the extent of its reach and the effectiveness and evolution of its programs. I’m proud to have watched its birth – but I’m much, much prouder of the remarkable leaders and residents of Sikoro who have made Mali Health into all that it is now, ten years later.

Erica Trauba remembers 10 years of Mali Health

Erica Trauba remembers 10 years of Mali Health

by | Oct 11, 2016 | Mali Health

The following comes from Erica Trauba, a founding member of Mali Health, as part of Mali Health’s 10th anniversary celebration.

Last month at a friend’s going away party in Abidjan, I met a woman who works in both Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. We struck up a conversation, and I told her that I lived in Bamako several years ago. Invariably, I also mentioned Mali Health. Right away, the woman’s face lit up and she exclaimed that she already knew the national director, Mariam, and was familiar with the organization’s work. To me, this was more than a serendipitous interaction – I took it as an encouraging sign that Mali Health is on the right path and that it continues to be successful in expanding its reach.

Back in the earliest days of Mali Health, I don’t think I ever fully visualized the potential extent of the organization’s longevity or its impact. In 2005, Mali Health was just a budding idea. In the fall of 2006, the team focused mostly on accomplishing tedious, yet essential first steps that would set the stage for all the action to come, like getting permission and buy-in from key local leaders, finding and cleaning a meeting space, and figuring out exactly which paperwork was needed to turn an idea into an official NGO. There were no offices or official programs yet, but no matter! We optimistically fumbled forward.

All those pieces gradually fell into place, amazing people came onboard, and through the dedication of staff, volunteers, board members, and local residents over the years, Mali Health became a full-fledged organization that has since established a strong track record of improving community health in Bamako. Thousands of people have since benefitted from the organization’s services. Now that is something to celebrate!

I left that party in Abidjan feeling encouraged about the power of grassroots development and interpersonal connection. I also felt proud to be part of a group of people who have come together to improve health outcomes for some of Mali’s most vulnerable populations. Now, as we celebrate Mali Health’s 10th anniversary, I feel even more motivated to help bolster this community as we embark on the next 10 years together.