First Day in the Field - Malaria Net Distribution

This was a very powerful day, emotionally and physically.

We will post a longer blog entry tomorrow, but it started at 8 AM with a launch of the Malaria campaign with the President of Mali and then we journeyed to several health clinics about one hour north of the city.

At each clinic there was a line of about 100 women, with 1 or 2 children each, to have their child immunized against Polio, dewormed, get Vitamin A and then receive a Malaria Net.

The children and mothers were participating in an unprecedented effort to decrease child mortality. They fully embraced us as visitors and it was so moving to interact and even help to distribute the nets.

Many more images and videos to follow...

Interview with Kass - Mali Resident

Here is an interview with a man in Mali, about the impact of Mosquito Nets on Malaria in his life over the past few years. While there have been adult uses of Nets, the current campaign will extend this to 95% of the infant population from birth to age 5.

Mali Singer Video

We were invited to a special reception the night before the launch of the Malaria lntegrated Health Launch. There was a Mali Band that was awesome. I taped a minute of it to use with a video conference that we did last night to students and faculty at Skidmore College

Sheep for Holy Days

In a few days, there is a very holy celebration here in Mali. One of the traditions is for a family (or a group of families) to slaughter and then eat a sheep. Throughout Bomako there are men taking sheep to market.