Welcome to Mali! How would it feel so save a life?

Here comes the first update out of Mali! We arrived safely a couple of days ago when our friend Youchaou picked us up from the airport. We had our first Africa experience in Nairobi when Kenyan Air told us that they we would have to fly without our luggage from Nairobi to Bamako because instead of luggage they'd carry fuel! After lengthy discussions we personally took care that the luggage comes on board with us.

Mali is a very interesting country! Despite having travelled to very poor places like India, Bolivia and some shantytowns in South Africa, I am still having a culture shock. We stay in a suburb of the capital Bamako and poverty is shocking. Roads are dust tracks, instead of flowers there is rubbish, houses have no colour and children have nothing to eat. But so little this people have in materialistic wealth, the more they have in smiles and kindness. Everyone is greeted in the street, family matters a great deal, meals are taken together and people help out each other.

Having a business background I felt quite frustrated and apathetic because I couldn't hardly see anything working (no wonder that so many people sit back and say nothing can be done). But then when I was sitting down with some street children it became clear that it is our responsibility to do at least what we can do. These street children are sent to beg in the streets, have had nothing to eat and no chance to receive any education. They are called "lost boys" out of a reason. But when they got fed yesterday at Youchaou's house I received the most heart touching smiles when I showed them digital pictures of them making funny postures!

This street children also receive some education from Youchaou's NGO we are supporting. This is such a chance for us to make a difference. We can safe lifes with every effort we make. This is not some fluffy fluffy pastime... imagine you have the chance to safe a life, will you pick up this call? We, a bunch of young people incl. Elise, Tomas, myself and more, are working to grow the NGO, raise funds and link directly to community development projects here in Mali on the ground. Results? Instantaneously!

Beware, this is not just making a quick donation... connecting to these kind people might change your life. There is also a lot to learn about humanity for us. Interested to join in? Email me!

For more photos see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjnagler/tags/mali/show/
For more info visit: http://www.reachmaliproject.org.au/
Watch the original Mali video: http://www.business4good.org/2007/04/blog-post.htm