Current ProjectsSeptember 2008 - PresentBuilding a Field Office and Training Center in Mali: ECOVA MALI is thrilled and grateful to receive support from LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics Charity Pot program to create a permanent field office and training center in Mali. Please seethe following website to learn more about our sponsors for this project, and their many wonderful products and programs. www.lush.com/charitypot Creating a field office in Mali is crucial to the development and increased impact of ECOVA MALI. The field office will double as a permanent training center, where groups of Malians will come to learn skills that will help them promote their own self-sufficiency and economic development, as well as that of their communities, through sustainable agricultural enterprises. As a component of our trainings offered at the ECOVA MALI Center, trainees will also be taught how to become effective trainers, themselves, so that they can then go on to teach there friends and neighbors. In this way our efforts will reach the greatest number of people efficiently and effectively. Our trainers will all be Malians hired by ECOVA MALI. Upon completion of the training program, exemplary participants will also become eligible for contractual training opportunities for which they would receive a stipend to train fellow Malians at the village level. The ECOVA MALI Center will serve as a training center and a field office to be used as a permanent base of operations. The Center will consist of housing for staff and trainees, an office, a large diversified garden, orchards, an aquaculture pond, field crops, chicken coops, and rabbit hutches. The Center will also serve as an operational model of food and energy self-reliance. We intend to produce all the food necessary to feed staff and trainees year round, as well as all the means necessary to meet the energy needs of the Center through solar energy, bio-fuel production, and possibly wind and/or micro-hydro power. Initially, the Center will have simple accommodations and basic amenities. Over time it is expected that we will be able to expand the Center as necessary to accommodate greater numbers of trainees, offer guest housing, and perhaps open a small restaurant serving nothing but food produced on site. Incorporating guest housing and a small restaurant would create an additional income stream for ECOVA MALI programs and increase our visibility as an organization. The search for an appropriate site for the Center is ongoing. We hope to find and purchase the land by April of 2009. We will begin construction as soon thereafter as possible. We will post developments on the website. Please check back from time to time to look for updates. February 2007
Mini-grant #1: Our first grant was made to Fatoumata Dembele. ECOVA MALI gave her 50,000 CFA ($125). With this money she purchased a wide variety of vegetable seeds which she proceded to distribute among the women in Niana Sobala, a small village in the Segou region. Fatoumata is an amazing woman, who has overcome many obstacles and hardships in her life. She is highly respected by the entire community and is the head of the Women's Association, an incredible group of women with great initiative, aspirations, solidarity, and skills. She and her friends have been able to save seed from the vegetables they grew and now they can grow the same vegetables again and again without purchasing new seed.
Micro-loan #1: We provided a micro-loan of $200 (100,000 CFA) to the family of Madou Diakite. He and his family are exceptionally skilled gardeners and manage an incredible river-side garden. When we saw them, they needed the loan to pay for repairs to their water pump, a resource that is critical to the success of their garden. Once the pump is repaired he and his family will be able to resume full production in his phenomenal garden. His agricultural expertise is well known in the region and he is slated to become one of ECOVA MALI's first trainers. Madou also took the initiative to provide some space within his fenced-in garden to a local women's association to whom he also offers access to irrigation from his pump. Project List
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We returned to Mali to visit our many friends and spend time in the villages where we lived as Peace Corps Volunteers. During our stay, we provided our very first micro loan and mini-grants. 
Mini-grant #2: We provided a mini-grant of $225 (110,000 CFA) to Djakari Djan Dembele for the urgently-needed purchase of a new fishing-net. Djakari is a fisherman by trade and his most valuable possession is his fishing net. With it he provides nourishment and income for his entire family. These nets are very expensive by Malian standards and due to some extremely difficult circumstances, Djakari could not afford one on his own. The Bani-fin is a river that flows through his village of Koro-Bada. The local fishermen have all noticed the decline in fish populations from over-fishing and pollution. Djakari is very interested in aquaculture, and we hope to match him with a Malian trainer so he can learn this valuable skill. Once he has mastered this skill we will be able to hire him to train other Malians. It is in this way that we intend to maximize the long-term impact of ECOVA MALI sponsored training efforts.