Not an ATM in Sight

Well, actually there is ONE. Can you believe it? In this country of Mali, there is but one ATM at the central bank in downtown Bamako, the capital city where I have returned after a few days training and testing in neighboring Guinea. I was forewarned of this dearth of ATM machines before my departure from the U.S. Cash is King here in Mali, declared the Save the Children Country Office director, Dunni Goodman. It is always a bit risky carrying so much cash on one's person. Travelers checks are not generally accepted, nor are credit cards. My hotel accepted my debit card, but my travel Visa card was not accepted even though it had more than adequate funds.



Enough of the funds stricture here. My work is completed, as I gave my exit presentation and recommendations to the senior managers here at Save the Children. On Wednesday late afternoon, I returned to Bamako from three days of training in Kankan, Guinea with Bamadio and Soro, my Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and Information Technology (IT) hosts, respectively. I stopped in to speak with Ms. Goodman for what i thought would be a brief moment. Instead, she asked me to sit down and asked if I would provide a presentation on PDA technology to their partner, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) here in Bamako. I said, sure, I'd love to. Save is co-developing a proposal to The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a Multi Year Assistance Program (MYAP) to alleviate food shortages (food insecurity) in an area to the north here in Mali.

Before I started my presentation, the CRS Director, Karen Kent gave me her paper survey horror story which occurred just the prior week. They had expended much cost and effort to conduct a baseline survey for one of their programs. A baseline is conducted to determine the structure of the program area, i.e. population, nutrition needs, etc. The box of the completed surveys was placed on a bus for transport back to their office in Bamako. That box has still not arrived...

The short of my presentation at CRS was a directive from Ms. Kent, to include PDA's in their collaborative MYAP proposal to reduce overall program costs for data collection and to increase data accuracy.



I took nearly 500 photos of the villages alone that I have visited. Many are posted on my image-sharing website http:\\disaak.phanfare.com. we spent an afternoon testing our PDA survey instruments at the village of Bate Nafadji, where Save has a Child Safety program implemented. As we drove the 4 hours from Bamako, Mali, to the Save office in Kanakan, Guinea, I saw a series of this "safe" houses along the highway. The intent is to inform and make aware the communities of the dangers of child exploitation resulting in child trafficking. A highway is a perfect conduit to obtain and transport children for various purposes, other than what a child should be doing.



As the three PDA-wielding teams dispersed through the village to conduct interviews, I was lead to a large room filled with students. It happened again, I was warmly greeted by a loud recitation of lessons and welcoming speeches. I am always overwhelmed at this reception, in part, because no such acclaim should be given to me; I have a return airplane ticket ot the U.S. The real heroes are the staff and students. i was also shown a room full of old treadle-style sewing machines. A student who had graduated from the Child safety program has remained in the village and now teaches a viable skill to boys and girls (this is gender notable). A marketable skill is still yet another weapon against child trafficking!



I then found the three teams as each team member took turns using the PDA's to survey a head of household. As usual, everyone took to the PDA's effortlessly, respondent as well as interviewer. A post-interview meeting was held before we headed back to the office.

I need to do some packing and head to bed. I return to the U.S. tomorrow