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Mali

PHILIP Mobile Training Center

Mrs. F.D. Owner

F.D. is respected and well-known throughout Mali for her work in promoting income generating activities among Christian women, particularly through microcredit, agriculture, solar energy, and youth leadership initiatives. Though her leadership, mediation, and family therapy training in the EU and UK, F.D. has been able to initiate a catalyzing effect within women's ministries in a country that's notoriously difficult for a woman to navigate.

Mr. J.T. Owner

A retired Civil Servant and current President of a small agricultural NGO, J.T. is a well-known throughout Mali for his innovative research and work in reforestation, animal husbandry, household energy, microcredit, microfinance, and small business initiatives and support. He's been a long term member of a large evangelical church in the capital city of Bamako.

Map of Mali

Country Context

In 1991, a military coup led by the current president overthrew the ruling dictatorship and established Mali as a democracy. However, as a landlocked country highly dependent on gold mining and agricultural exports, it’s also among the 25 poorest countries in the world. Dependent on foreign aid and roughly 65% desert, 80% of Mali's labor force is engaged in farming and fishing in the riverine irrigated by the Niger River contributing to its GDP of US$1200. According to a recent study, Mali was one of the top 10 most illiterate countries in the world. And according to the World Health Organization, over 91% of Mali's girls and women have endured some form of female genital mutilation. 90% of Malians are Muslim, while the remaining 10% are Christian (5%) or Animist (5%).

In early 2012 an insurgency begun in northern Mali, led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). A few months later military troops staged a coup d'état in the capital of Bamako, located in southern Mali. The MNLA took control of the north and declaring independence. A short time later, Islamist groups turned on the MNLA and took control of the north, rejecting independence in favor of a Mali under Sharia law.