(ANS - Touba) - At Touba, in Mali, the Salesian NGO Via Don Bosco supports vocational training for young people who have dropped out of school. They will soon open a new training centre, run by the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. It is intended especially for those who have left education, young people who, in most cases, dropped out of school to seek their fortune in the city, but then remain with nothing.

by Maïka Denys

Via Don Bosco

Mali is the second largest country in West Africa. The capital, Bamako, is a city with almost 2.3 million inhabitants but the majority of Malians live in the countryside and engage in agriculture or livestock. With an income of less than a dollar a day, the right to education is threatened for about half the population. The situation is even more difficult for girls. Only half of them attend school, while half will have had a child before the age of eighteen.

Moreover, the political crisis that Mali has been going through since 2012, after an attempted military coup, has only made matters worse.

Bankouma is a remote village in the south of Mali. It is impossible to reach it during the rainy season. It is inhabited by 640 people, mostly farmers, called "Bobo", who grow mainly millet and sorghum.

As there is no drinking water in the village, they have to go looking for it elsewhere several times a day and bring it back in heavy tanks. This is the daily task of girls like Fatou.

To prevent young people from leaving the village - at the risk of finding themselves alone and without help - a vocational training centre is now being built with the support of VIA Don Bosco. It will include a building for teachers and equipment and materials for the laboratories. They have a hard decision to make, whether to start a course in mechanics for two-wheeled vehicles (bicycles, mopeds, trolleys) or to install sun panels which would bring electricity to the village.

At present there are three Salesian communities with twelve confreres in Mali (Touba, Sikasso and Bamako) and two communities with nine Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Touba and Sikasso). The Salesians and the Sisters are working in the field of vocational training and the Sisters also run a medical dispensary.

Published 11/06/2015