Mali Health

Mali Health Organizing Project

File:MHOP.jpg Mali Health Organizing Project's logo
Formation	2006
Type	NGO
Location	[Bamako, Mali] [Providence, Rhode Island, USA]
Region served	West Africa
Official language	Bambara, French, English
Key people	Mouhammadoun Niang, Director Caitlin Cohen, US Executive Director
Website	Mali Health Organizing Project

Mali Health Organizing Project (established in 2006) is a non-governmental organization with 501(c)(3) status that enables economically depressed neighborhoods in Bamako, Mali to design and implement their own health care systems, and impels the Malian government to invest in its citizens' health.

History

MHOP was founded in Sikoroni, Bamako, Mali by Caitlin Cohen, Lindsay Ryan and Erica Trauba, students at Brown University who had previously volunteered in Bamako. They

Cohen, Ryan and Trauba believed that the role of a development organization is to foster rather than replace local groups and government action. Similarly, Mouhammadoun (Modibo) Niang (MHOP's current executive director), Rokia Savané (vice-president of Coordination Des Associations Et ONG Feminines Du Mali and an official representative to MHOP), Siriki Coulibaly (adviser to Sikoroni's chief and the town’s official representative to MHOP) and numerous other leaders in Sikoroni were frustrated by a history of failed projects, including a huge aid-agency water project that left the community without water, without the $30,000 they had contributed, and without many children who died because of iron contamination.

Since 2006, MHOP has grown enormously, with 120 U.S.-based volunteers and partnerships with groups at the {University of Michigan], [Northwestern University], [Harvard University], and high schools in [Chicago, Illinois] and [Vermont]. Over 75 Malians regularly volunteer with MHOP, and two women act as part-time women’s empowerment coordinators (Cohen 2008, p. 1).

References

• Cohen, Caitlin (2008). "Jenzabar Foundation Grant application."