Charity
Charity projects are an important part of our African trips. In the past we supported an SOS children’s village in southern Mali, brought medicines to a community clinic in Bamako, donated two cars, and built a solar powered irrigation system for a village in Mali. In 2013 and 2015 our projects were rewarded with the Budapest-Bamako’s Mother Theresa Charity award.
In 2015 our main project was to deliver and install a solar powered irrigation system for the village of Mambourke in North-Western Mali.
Mambourke is a village of 800 inhabitants near Diema. Our friend Pam Young of Village Ventures has been helping in that area for many years: there is a small school and in 2012 a well was dug supplying the village with drinking water.
To fight malnutrition due to a monotonous millet based diet, Pam has launched a market garden program. We supported Pam’s efforts by delivering and installing an irrigation system for the community garden. The system consists of a solar pump, photovoltaic modules, a large diameter main line transporting the water from the well to the garden, and of lateral water distribution lines with taps to the vegetable patches. Water flow is controlled by hand-operated ball valves. The design is simple and does not require regular maintenance.
All the material needed, the pump, 8m² of solar panels, approximately 200m of thick tube for the main line and a few kilometers of small diameter distribution lines, as well as hundreds of fittings and valves, were loaded into the donation truck of the Budapest-Bamako rally.
After the finish we took the material to Mambourke and spent a few days there to install the irrigation system and to train the people of Mambourke how to use and maintain it.
In addition we have supported the clinic of Mali Health in Sikoro, a slum on the outskirts of Bamako, in 2011, 2013, and 2015. With the help of our sponsors more than 200 kg of antibiotics and other medicines were donated. Our main sponsors were Sandoz and Gerot-Lannach, we are grateful for their generous support.
