There is much celebrating in Dagabo with the arrival of a grinding mill! Our fantastic local representative, Mme. Korotimi Haidara, was awarded a grant through Rotary and has purchased a 2-sided mill for the Women’s Committee of Dagabo. When the bright blue mill was delivered, the women and other villagers celebrated with a feast, dancing, singing songs of praise for Koro, and playing of home-made instruments.
Before the Mill
The women of Dagabo, and most of rural Mali, spend a large portion of their days in food preparation. Every morning groups gather around large wooden buckets made from gourds or wood, and use enormous mallets made from tree branches to manually pound the dried millet, corn, or peanuts to prepare for daily meals. The sound of the pounding is familiar to all who have visited Dagabo! Grain preparation is a very labor-intensive process, and takes up much of their days. During the rainy season, when grain is more plentiful, sometimes a man from another village has brought a grinding mill into Dagabo, and charged those who could afford to pay to use his machine. This speeds up the process but is too costly for most families.
When we met with the Women’s Committee in 2012 to ask what were the primary needs of the village, they described a grinding mill to us as their first priority. A mill would free up a large amount of their time, enabling shorter work-days and providing more time for cooking, caring for children, and farming. They could grind extra, and perhaps sell flour or ground peanuts in the market in Ouéléssébougou. In addition, when their own grains had been ground, they could also make money from renting out the machine to nearby villages. Shortly after our meeting, they started a Shared Savings Group to save what little money they could towards this goal.
By 2015 they have saved almost 120.000 ($200), about 1/10 the cost of a mill. In her regular meetings with the group, Koro learned of their desire for a 2-sided mill, which would allow simultaneous grinding of 2 different grains, or millet into 2 different sizes (larger for most meals, finer to mix with dried milk for children), or roasted shea nuts during the rainy season to use or sell for soap-making.
Rotary International
Koro joined the Bamako Rotary in 2014 as our representative. After explaining the needs in Dagabo and our goals there, our Rotary friend Sunny Akuopha encouraged her to apply for one of its grants. Not only was her application successful, it was also shared at a gathering of West African Rotarians as an example of the good work being done by its members!
We are so thankful to our friends in Rotary Bamako Ouest for this opportunity, and especially to Koro for her amazing work, and her caring and dedication to the people of Dagabo. We love you Koro!
