It’s been almost a year since we left Mali and our friends there. We’re now very involved with the Ouelessebougou Alliance here on this side of the ocean, continuing to help in Mali as much as we can.
This week we received word from our Field Director, Djiba about these projects. The first is a bathroom built by the Alliance at the women’s garden.
Djiba reported: More than 80 women work in this garden to earn some income for their families. This is their first time to get their own bathrooms in the garden. According to the leader of this women’s garden, ”We spend all day here without bathrooms. We had to run to a neighborhood bathroom and sometimes we found that someone used it. As a result, some of us, particularly oldest ones would pee on the clothes before we got to another bathroom. We will no longer look for an opening space near the garden to pee. This is the best way to respect us (women), to value us, to honor us, to protect our dignity, and defend our rights. We have been in this garden more than 25 years without bathrooms. We are just happy and grateful for Utah Alliance.”
Here is the last visit I took to the women’s garden with lots of pictures of what it’s like there:
Teningnini continues to teach the women and girls of Ouelessebougou about Days for Girls and understanding their bodies. This is such an important gift to these wonderful women who will now have beautiful re-useable kits made by our sewists at the Ouelessebougou compound. I am cheering them on from here.
