Our good friend Jean Marie Nosal is founder and honorary president of Via Sahel Enfants d'Afrique, a small locally based charity dedicated to helping the children of Mali. Working with his wife Winnie and a small group of volunteers in France and professional staff in Mali, Jean Marie has dedicated over 30 years to this work and we at Mas del Sol do what little we can to raise funds to support them.
Last December, against all our wishes and the advice of the French Foreign Ministry, Jean Marie made his customary two week trip to Mali. Although confined to Bamako for security reasons, he was able to meet local representatives both of the charity's projects and the Malian government, including the wife of the President.
The current projects include a hospital and laboratory, an orphanage and maternity unit, a scheme to feed street children (over 400 per day), a communal market garden run by women and a primary school. Seeing 600 children being taught in cardboard and tin buildings Jean Marie set about getting a design for a pre-fabricated school, as a blue print for a replacement school and a template for further schools in due course. For 30000 euros this school can be open by September. Jean Marie is also pressing for the 47 handicapped children presently cared for in the orphanage to be re-located to more suitable premises and has obtained official backing for this - all that is needed is the money.
Mali being an ex-French colony the legacy of bureaucracy so beloved of his native land allied to a certain African way of doing things could be an obstacle to most of us, but Jean Marie has his own way of persuading people and refusing all corruption at the same time.
Via Sahel is appealing for contributions to the school project (66% tax relief for French taxpayers) and if anyone would like details contact me for details or a pdf copy of his report on the visit
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