In 2013, Sourata Touré and her husband fled their home in Gao, northern Mali, to offer a safer environment for their six children. The country had suffered months of armed conflict and political insecurity after a government coup in 2012.
“The situation was unbearable,” says Sourata. “Our children were hiding and crying in the house all the day. They could not go as far as two meters from the house. They were so frightened by the armed groups and their gun shots.”
During and after the 2012-2013 crisis, 255,000 affected people moved from northern to southern Mali, flooding the capital, Bamako. They had run away from insecurity. They had lost everything. As internally displaced people (IDPs), they could at least receive help from the government and aid groups. But reality is different from their hope. Most of them are unemployed or work odd jobs.
They live off of their savings, credit, and the goodwill of generous people or organisations.
The armed opposition groups burnt Sourata’s husband’s shop in the Gao market. Sourata, too, had to stop her modest business as a fish and rice trader due to insecurity.
“We left Gao with nothing in our hands, not even a mattress,” she says. “We lost everything we had built over 20 years.”
To quickly respond to the population’s need, WV implemented the MICANA project with funding from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). 1,400 displaced households received $100 cash every month plus Non Food Items like mattresses, mosquito nets, hygiene kits, and kitchen supplies such as basins, buckets, and cookware.
Sourata and her family now live as IDPs in Bamako. From August through December 2014, they are receiving $100 per month through the Bamako Internally Displaced Persons Recovery Project (BIRP), which is implemented by World Vision Mali and funded by OFDA.
“This money has changed our life. Every month I spend $36 for 100 kg of rice and I pay $30 for the rent in this informal settlement [where we live]. We can only afford to live in a building under construction. We have nowhere else to stay. With the $34 remaining I pay for vegetables to eat with the rice, and I take care of my children’s health. [To make money], my husband has only been able to cut firewood to sell, and sometimes he comes back home without a penny.”
The project provides 1,200 vulnerable households in Bamako—about 7,200 people—with cash distribution. World Vision also trains beneficiaries on how to start a business and to try to regain some of the income lost when they were displaced. Sourata is happy because she is willing to resume her rice trading business in Bamako.
“Even if we live under difficult conditions, I can’t imagine what our life would have been like without assistance,” Sourata says. “The project has reduced our suffering so much. It is thanks to this project that my children eat, are in good health, sleep on a mattress, and can attend school. Today my children have regained the joy to play! They run freely in the neighborhood with no fear, and they are sure to have a plate of rice at night [for dinner]. When I look at them playing, I forget about everything I lost in Gao. The smile on their face has no price.”
